by Cindy Taylor, Treasurer, Stevensville Clothes Closet, Inc.
The Stevensville Clothes Closet Inc. is a non-profit business staffed by volunteers and supported by donations. We lease the building/lot at 3624 ALC Way and are in jeopardy of losing our lease if people leave donations after hours. There are signs displayed along with security cameras which mention donations only being accepted during operating hours.
On Friday, April 12, someone left numerous donations next to the trash dumpster and out of view of the cameras. Not only is this not permitted, it rained that evening and destroyed most of those donated items. This caused extra work for our volunteers and became an expense for our organization since we therefore incurred additional garbage costs.
We cannot continue in our mission to help those in need when people do not adhere to our posted policy. This act was intentionally done by someone aware that this was not acceptable, hence dumping their donations out of view of the security cameras. We are now forced to purchase additional cameras to cover the area by the trash dumpsters. Unfortunately in the future we will be forced to prosecute those who don’t adhere to our donation policy.
We appreciate donations and serving our wonderful community, hoping this was once again an isolated incident. There are also signs posted indicating what we are able/unable to accept for donations, something that was disregarded by those who left such a mess the evening of April 12.