The Hill Country Senior Center thrift store has been serving the Dripping Springs community for more than 35 years.
The primary focus of the thrift store is to help fund the Hill Country Senior Center, which is located directly across the parking lot from the store.
The center offers many services to the community’s seniors, such as a subsidized meal every day, art classes, games like Rummikub, Bingo and Dominoes and field trips outside of Dripping Springs.
“The point of the store is first to fund the senior center, the second is to provide goods to the community at an affordable cost,” said store manager Leann Tock. “We really pay attention to our pricing because we want to make it affordable to the working people … We don't even have a Target [in Dripping Springs.] So, that's super important.”
According to Tock, one of the other goals of the thrift store is to provide volunteer opportunities. These opportunities are for more than just high school students striving to get their volunteer hours. More than 50% of the volunteers at the store are senior citizens, said Tock.
“We have volunteers here from age 15 to age 85,” said Tock.
The thrift store’s inventory comes all from donations and it accepts many different types of items, including household goods such as plates, silverware and cups, books and jewelry.
But the most popular items are clothes.
According to Tock, “Clothing is 50% of what we do here. I mean literally, 50% of our revenues. We sell so much of it.”
The store is receiving so many donations, of clothes in particular, that it is adding a whole new building just to hold their backstock of clothes, but it cannot accept everything. According to its website, among the things it does not accept are mattresses, large appliances, paint, pianos, large entertainment units, chemicals, stained-dirty or cat-peed furniture or any heavy item over 150 pounds. People are asked not to bring their trash to the store, as it costs money to get rid of anything they cannot recycle.
“We don't just sell things. We send textiles to a recycler. We recycle our water bottles. We send towels and blankets and stuff to PAWS [Animal Shelter],” Tock said.
The thrift store is always looking for volunteers, said Tock. The goal is to try to match people to their passion or specialty.
“Almost everyone here has a special interest. [Volunteer] Mario knows about cameras. I love vintage clothing and I used to work in handbags. Everybody knows something. Joyce, one of our longest time employees, knows all about depression glass. We look for volunteers and we match them up with their interests or with their knowledge base,” Tock explained.
This holiday season, and year-round, community members can support the Hill Country Senior Center thrift store, located at 1310 West US 290, Dripping Springs, by donating financially or dropping off resellable items.
For more information about the thrift store, or the Senior Center, visit www. hcseniorcenter.org.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WYSA In November, the U11 Boys, pictured, won all four of their games and took home the gold at the Georgetown Force Fall Classic Soccer Tournament. They are participants of the Wimberley Youth Sports Association.
