Our Story

Uplifting Thrifting has stemmed from my long-standing enjoyment of running fundraisers for non-profits, coupled with my love of thrift stores! Over the last decade or so, I have co-chaired fundraisers for Hope for Gus, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Disaster Relief Fund, in conjunction with the Hanover and Lebanon Permanent Fire Fighters. During an IAFF Disaster Relief Fund fundraiser for Hurricane Harvey in 2017, I was asked what I would do with the leftover goods from the sale I was running, and I gave my normal spiel about dividing it up between some of the local thrift stores, depending on what each store would accept. The lady promptly offered a suggestion to take the goods over to Plymouth to a wonderful thrift store called Ladders; she went on to describe how all of the proceeds from the store go to support veterans homelessness and advocacy. I'm not going to lie, I was a little daunted by the suggestion since Plymouth was a bit of a drive and there was a LOT leftover from the sale, but with a little push from my husband, the willingness of my mother to make the ride over and some caffeine, we made the drive over the mountain to Plymouth.

Not to be overly dramatic, but this experience was life changing! From the moment we stepped foot in the store, the atmosphere was drastically different from any other thrift store I had ever been in and it instantly became my favorite thrift store! The manager at the store, Sue, promptly greeted us and thanked us for the donations and showed us to their donation room. Once we were done delivering the donations, I of course had to wander around the store. The store is a large two-story building owned by the American Legion; it was amazingly well organized, clean, free of unpleasant odors and just generally enjoyable to shop in! While I was checking out, Sue thanked me again for my purchase and I noticed the sign above their desk that specifically says how many veterans they have helped with their sales. At that very moment the wheels started turning and from that day on, Uplifting Thrifting has been in the works! I knew that I wanted to have my own store that supported causes that I was passionate about in our area so that others could experience how uplifting thrifting can be! I have now spent countless hours with a group of wonderful SCORE mentors and Ross Hart from the Vermont Small Business Development Center working on business plans, budgets, site analyses and more to make this wonderful little thrift store a reality. I hope that my vision for this store will exceed your expectations and keep you coming back for many years to come!

I want to thank my wonderful family and friends for their endless support while this project moved through each phase, I would not have been able to make it happen without all of you!