By Janet Martin
We’re Crozet’s favorite department store! We are so grateful to you, the Crozet community, for the wonderful support you give to us. You contribute quality items and clothing that you no longer need and, in turn, we can pass them on to others who can use them and are so grateful for them. Our volunteers work hard to display the items and have an inviting store for our customers. We are thankful for each one of the volunteers and for you, our customers.
It is quite amazing that The Green Olive Tree has been in business for 43 years and has been staffed by volunteers all these years with the exception of several years when we had a paid manager.
The third full week of each month we have a $10 bag sale where you can fill a brown grocery bag with clothing, books, CD’s and other items. On the last day of that week, on Saturday, you can fill a bag for $5. We, as a board, decided to implement this to especially help those who are struggling and need a hand up. It also helps clear the racks so we can put out new items and our customers are blessed to get so much for only $5!
We really are in need of a larger space where we can take in furniture donations and larger items that we can’t handle now with our limited space. And it would be so nice to have a corner in our shop where our customers could get a cup of coffee or tea and sit and chat together. We would like to ask you, as a community, to keep your ears and eyes open for a new home for us. Perhaps there is someone in the community who could donate some land so we could build a larger store to better serve the community.
One constant problem is that people often drop off boxes and bags when our shop is not open. There are some persons who daily drive around the back of the store in the evening to pilfer through the bags/boxes and take (steal) items. So, if you drop off items when the shop is not open there is a good chance the nice items will be taken (stolen) and we never see them.
One of the best things about The Green Olive Tree is that we support a number of nonprofits with the money we generate after expenses are paid. We also work with the local school guidance counselors to help needy families. We have given away over $1,000,000 in these 43 years! A group of students from WAHS has been decorating our window and we are grateful to them and their teacher(s) for their time and effort.
So, from The Green Olive Tree, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and God’s blessing to all.
