EVERETT — St. Vincent de Paul North Sound Council celebrated the completion of its new $2.5 million production building with a blessing and grand opening Aug. 5.
It was the culmination of more than three years of effort to replace a dilapidated building that had served as a storage and sorting site for donations and other needs since SVdP moved to 6430 Broadway in 1979, said Inga Paige, CEO and executive director of the North Sound Council.
The old building was “kind of hodgepodge and it needed a new roof”— on rainy days, staff and volunteers had to position buckets to catch leaks, Paige said. “The electric system was shot, and we couldn’t use the clothes baler over there because the voltage wasn’t high enough,” she said, plus there was no bathroom.
Watching its walls finally come tumbling down in October 2022 breathed fresh life into project, which had been stalled by the pandemic, Paige said. In mid-July, the new 5,000-square-foot building opened with a furniture storefront, meeting/community room, bathroom and ample working space for 20 to 25 employees and volunteers to sort, price and stock donations, she said.
The grand opening in August included a blessing by Heralds of the Good News Father Ronald Gajettan, parochial vicar of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Everett and St. John Mission in Mukilteo.
Although similar in size to the old building, the new building’s open-space layout functions better and creates better operating conditions, Paige said.
“For me, one of the most important things is that we have a clean, safe environment for our employees,” she said.
One big change is how furniture is displayed. It used to be crammed into a small space in the main thrift store at the Broadway site, but the new building has a dedicated furniture area that allows the staff to stage scenes and make the furnishings look more presentable, Paige said.
The project also added more parking and a new drive-through area, which changed how people drop off donations of gently used clothing, household furnishings, books, toys and other items.
“Donations have increased, and the customers are so much happier with the new and easier process,” Paige said. “We usually average around 50 to 60 donations a day.”
Money from thrift-store sales enables St. Vincent de Paul to help families and individuals in the surrounding community meet basic needs through rent and utilities assistance, gas vouchers and food, Paige said.
One of the council’s biggest ministries is a children’s bed program, which is funded through grants and by thrift store sales when customers round up their purchase to the nearest dollar, she said. Besides the Everett thrift store, the council operates a resource center in Monroe.