More Than a Fad Thrift Store - Southside - Edmonton

The More Than a Fad Story

Our team at Adeara was blown away by a new opportunity for Adeara in the spring. Early in 2020, Shepherd’s Care Foundation asked Adeara if we would consider taking on Treats n’ Treasures, a thrift store that had formerly raised funds for supporting seniors living in Shepherd’s Care facilities. If we accepted, the store would come under the ownership of Adeara and its profits would become a new financial support for Adeara’s programming.

An opportunity at a time of need

This offer came at a time of financial need for Adeara. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread into the city of Edmonton, our community began to feel the effects of isolation and stresses on health and finances. At the centre, we began to feel the effects as well. The women and children in our care were no longer able to engage in daily activities included in their recovery programming (such as going to church or exercising), volunteers were no longer able to help out at the centre with daily operations, and our staff became burdened with heavier workloads and new health and safety responsibilities.

When Shepherd’s Care offered the thrift store, Adeara saw the opportunity: this store could create some of the consistent revenue we need and bring awareness to Adeara at the same time. Adeara enthusiastically accepted the offer and assembled a team to revamp the store.

A community effort toward a big endeavour

There were many things on the to-do list. The thrift store team looked at every way to improve the shopping experience and the back-end operations, from store organization, to branding, to volunteer coordination. Our team lead, Charlene Nanninga, set to work first on the store layout and sorting of donations. Every Wednesday, Charlene hosted volunteer work bees where several Adeara supporters came out to help with the grunt work and share a pizza supper. During the day, she and the team came to know the volunteers and customers of the store and came up with strategies to broaden the store’s supportive community.

Over the month of June, many changes came to the store, but the biggest came during the last week before Canada Day. The team closed the store for renovations, and began painting and re-branding the store. On July 2^nd, we launched the new store as More Than a Fad.

Introducing More Than a Fad

The store name came from one of Adeara’s support workers, Eden Evans. Eden had created the name for an Instagram account where she sold second-hand clothes online and donated the proceeds to Adeara. In between selling items, Eden used the account to tell her followers about Adeara and educate them on the realities of addiction. We loved the name and the heart behind it, and asked Eden if she would let us use it for the thrift store. With a true spirit of generosity, Eden agreed.

Since our launch, we have received tremendous support. Adeara supporters and the general Edmonton community alike have blessed us with donations, volunteered, and helped us spread the word. Though the store is still new, we are optimistic about the support and awareness it will bring to Adeara.

Get Involved

You can support our team and the work they do by becoming a monthly supporter of Adeara. Did you know it costs approximately $3,500 each month to put one woman through our programming? And yet every $1 you invest in a recovery and healing program yields a minimum return of $4–$7 in reduced system costs in our communities. All that to say; any amount you can contribute makes a difference to us here at Adeara. Please consider supporting us today so we can change futures through changed lives.

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