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Date: 4/24/2015
WESTFIELD – Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity officially opened ReStore on April 17.
Mayor Daniel Knapik, state Sen. Don Humason, state Rep. John Velis and Kate Phelon of the Chamber of Commerce and member of the Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors attended the grand opening and ribbon cutting.
ReStore is a nonprofit home improvement store and donation center. The store sells and accepts gently used home supplies, ranging from furniture to siding and light fixtures to paint supplies. So far, 98 percent of the merchandise available in-store has been donated, with great support from the community, manager Bill Zagorski said.
With the money made at ReStore being poured back into the Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity’s home building program, he said it is hard not to get behind the cause.
“We have a very tangible mission, where all the money raised here goes to assist families in need of simple, decent affordable housing,” Zagorski said. “You can’t really get much more human and tangible than that.”
Though Zagorski said it has been hard work to get to this point, he and his staff are happy to be able to serve the area. As part of the “30 in 3” program, Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity hopes to help 30 families in three years, in addition to opening ReStore.
Now that the store is open, it can help advance the goals of the whole organization.
“It makes it all worth it and it makes it worth it because our goal is to ultimately be able to fund an additional house for the affiliate every year, so we hope by the end of year three we’ll be able to sponsor an additional house each year with just the funds raised through the ReStore.”
While the money from ReStore goes back to help build homes in the community, the products it sells help families design and furnish their homes at an affordable cost, he said.
The entire operation benefits the community, Zagorski said.
“I don’t think it’s important just to the Westfield community. I think it’s important to the whole community at large, like Hampden County,” Zagorski said. “It gives homeowners an opportunity to find low-cost household items and building materials, especially in an economy like we have.
“It’s also a business; it’s a tax generator. We’re supplying the community with an opportunity to not only donate items and keep things out of a landfill but we’re giving people the opportunity to purchase those special items and those treasures also that they’re really looking for.”
Alongside Zagorski are his assistant manager Mischa Epstein and his operations manager Dominic Evans. The three look forward to establishing relationships with customers and a partnership with the community, Zagorski said.
ReStore is located at 301 E. Main St. and is open Wednesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.restorewestfield.com or call 642-8990.