The Campbell River Hospital Auxiliary wants the dumping in front of its thrift shop to stop.
The auxiliary doesn’t want items dropped off outside of donation times, saying it’s a constant and recurring problem with a giant mess to clean up.
Thrift shop volunteers often can’t even enter the building because donations are blocking the door.
The other issue is that there are people rifling through the donations, leaving a very large mess. The auxiliary says this results in broken and dirty things that have to be thrown away.
Bonnie Snyder has volunteered with the thrift shop for two decades.
She says people using the store as a dump, or stealing from the pile of unsorted donations is nothing new.
“It’s been going on forever,” she said. “They drop things off that don’t work. It’s just the way it goes. People come in and take things out of the front that people have donated.”
Snyder is sending a friendly reminder that thrift shop workers are all volunteers.
She also reminds those who are stealing from donations that every penny from the thrift shop goes to Campbell River’s hospital.
“None of it is spread around for wages or anything so they’re basically stealing from themselves,” she said. “We’re all going to end up in the hospital at one time (or another) and it all goes (to) whatever they’re needing. It goes (to) curtains, or a machine, anything like that. Any need that the hospital needs, the money gets donated, all of it, right back to them.”
