"People no longer live paycheck-to-paycheck, they are one paycheck away from being homeless" The Dave Ramsey Show. The Free Tree consists of items from couponing & BaSiC Needs Storehouse's services of professional organizing, doing make-readies on rental properties & storage facilities, picking up yard sale leftovers, etc. - turning others' castoffs into blessings for many, while keepin
g usable items out of the landfills. A half empty bottle of shampoo is a half full bottle of shampoo to someone in need or may be just what someone needs to get by until payday. Although I shop Goodwill in support of the handicapped, I will not donate to them, as I have personally witnessed their dumpster mounded over with clothing - when there is a company in Dallas that will pick them up & ship them to 3rd world countries. It is my goal to have a thrift store the way GW used to be and to use it as a program for foster children to teach them people & business skills - and provide them a job should they "age out of the system," as I have already been told that I will probably have older children in my care when my home becomes licensed to foster. When a load is picked up, most items are re-donated to people, churches or organizations that are in need of them. I have several outlets for specific items:
* Reclamation Station-Canton: Planters, etc. for their greenhouse.
* First Assembly of God-Terrell: Vases for their yearly flower fundraisers for their missionaries.
* Terrell State Hospital-Terrell: Clothing/accessories for the patients & other items for their monthly rummage room sale which provides needed items for the patients.
* Followers of Christ-Wills Point: Clothing for their clothing room.
* Formal wear for proms, funerals.
* Coats & blankets for the needy & homeless.
