Donation Store Opens in Sigourney

SIGOURNEY – Agape Shoppe, a new donation store offering free clothing and household goods to anyone who needs them, opened its doors in Sigourney on June 22. The store is located at a formerly vacant building at 106 S. Main Street in Sigourney and employs volunteers. “It was two and a half months of a lot of heart, sweat and tears, even,” said Pastor Joe Hohenshel, one of the shop’s co-founders, prior to the ribbon cutting. “And we were able to complete it here just yesterday. We worked right up to the last minute...We’ve had a great outpouring of donations from the community in the last couple of weeks, since we started taking donations, as far as material things, and we have plenty more to replenish when some of this starts to leave.”

In the future, Hohenshel is hoping to receive financial support for the shop from the community. He stated that it takes an estimated $800-$1,000 per month to keep the store running, meaning it would only take 100 people donating $10 a month each.

“I’m really excited, said Hohenshel. “It’s been a vision that we believe the Lord gave us way back on the first of April. We feel like we’ve accomplished that and we feel pretty grateful. The Lord has really given us the money and the resources to do it and the skills to do the jobs ourselves. We didn’t hire anyone to do anything. So I’m just really excited that we’ve gotten to this point, and I hope the community gets excited about it too. And from what I’ve seen so far, that’s starting to happen.”

The store will be open to customers on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will accept donations during business hours. The store can be contacted via PO Box 101 or agapeShop0424@gmail.com. The store’s emergency contact number is (319) 450-8333.

“You know, a lot of people can get that stigma that a free store is just for poor people. That’s not what this is about,” said Hohenshel. “We know the community and families, people that are raising children are struggling to pay their bills. This is an opportunity for people to be able to come in, maybe pick up some stuff for their kids, for yourself, and use that money that you save not buying material things and spend it on rent and mortgages and car insurance and gas and food and all those things. That’s really the message that we want to get out to the community, it’s for everybody. It’s not just for your low income.”