One person’s junk is another person’s treasure. Goodwill Industries of San Diego is taking Santee’s treasures and turning them into jobs. So many treasures in fact, that a new donation facility is needed just to house them all.
Just a mere block east of its three-year-old sister store, Goodwill opened its first-ever Goodwill Industries of San Diego donation storefront on May 17.
One person’s junk is another person’s treasure. Goodwill Industries of San Diego is taking Santee’s treasures and turning them into jobs. So many treasures in fact, that a new donation facility is needed just to house them all.
Just a mere block east of its three-year-old sister store, Goodwill opened its first-ever Goodwill Industries of San Diego donation storefront on May 17.
Sharon Corrigan, Director of Communication for Goodwill, said she hopes this will be the first of many permanent donation centers in San Diego County.
“In all of San Diego, this is our first donation site that isn’t attached to a retail store,” she said. “This was the obvious first choice because of the traffic situation at the Santee retail store.”
Corrigan said the donation storefront will alleviate the heavy traffic jams Santee residents encountered while going to the Goodwill retail located on the congested intersection of Mission Gorge Road and Olive Lane.
“We listened, Santee,” said Beth Forsberg, Vice President of Operations of Goodwill Industries of San Diego. “You can still donate at the retail store, but now we’ve given you a second more convenient option.”
Corrigan said a donation-specific storefront is preferable to freestanding donation centers like the ones at “Park and Ride” lots and San Diego trolley stations because it allows for the Goodwill employees to have more control over the donation sites.
“It provides security for both our workers and our donations,” she said. “When you’re in a freestanding site with a bunch of bins and it starts to rain, we’re trying to throw tarps over everything, trying to get everything under a cover. We lose donations due to those conditions.”
This brand new donation center allows Santee residents wishing to donate their gently used clothing, household goods, furniture and electronics to do so in a stress-free manner. Corrigan said donors will enjoy the streamlined donation process the new storefront provides.
“All they have to do is ring the bell and drop their items to one of our staff,” she said. “That’s why we’re open seven days a week. The more people we can divert over here the better it will be for everybody, for the customers, the donors, and our employees.”
Santee’s Storefront Donation Center is located at 9740-C Mission Gorge Rd., Santee 92071 and is open Monday – Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. and Sunday 10:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
