Moldy, broken and dirty items dropped off at the Rescue Squad thrift shop this past weekend are a setback to the mission of the little store to raise money for ambulance equipment and costs for the Morgan County Rescue Service.
On Saturday and Sunday, individuals unloaded and left large pieces of furniture in the parking lot of the thrift shop building on Concord Avenue – all of them with visible mold, mildew, dirt and damage that makes the items unable to be sold. Instead, the Morgan County Rescue Squad Auxiliary will pay a local trash hauler upward of $200 to haul the items to the dump – where they should have gone in the first place.
Volunteers on Monday morning found half of their parking lot taken up with the trash.
Iris Duckwall was reviewing the building’s security camera to identify which vehicles had dropped the items off.
The thrift shop in Berkeley Springs accepts clothing and household items as donations, and sells those at their shop at low prices to raise funds for new rescue squad equipment. The group has raised tens of thousands of dollars to put toward ambulance upgrades, new purchases and other needs.
Duckwall said every time they have to pay to haul off garbage, that’s less money they can donate to the rescue squad.
The thrift shop will happily take donations of gently-used clothing and household items, clean and undamaged furniture, books and other usable items.
They cannot take large items, old TVs, broken or damaged merchandise, moldy or mildewed items. A large sign at the shop lists things they cannot take for donation.
Duckwall said each time the volunteers have to deal with loads that shouldn’t have been dropped off, they question whether they can afford to keep the shop open.
Moldy furniture left outside the Rescue Squad thrift store over the weekend will end up costing the fundraising shop to haul away.
