The owners of Serenity Thrift have requested permission to place their donation bins at the county’s convenience centers.
“What we do is collect the items, sell them and give it right back to your community,” said Debbie Morrison, who made a proposal before county Health and Welfare Committee members Michael Martin, Teddy Boyd, Billy Earl Jones, Tommy Savage and Blaine Wilcher. “I would like to propose you allow us to put our donation bins in your convenience centers.”
Serenity Thrift is an offshoot of Serenity Pointe, a Dunlap-based ministry founded by Debbie and her husband Gerald seven years ago. There are also Serenity Thrift stores in Dunlap, Spencer and Sparta. Future plans include opening a store in Cookeville.
Morrison says their mission is to help people.
“We started out by taking homeless people into our home,” she said. “We found this individual in a cemetery during my sister’s funeral. We realized we wanted to do good work but it would take money. We opened our first thrift store to fund what we are doing. As we grew, other nonprofits kept coming to my husband and me and asking us how we were doing what we were doing.”
The couple decided to “adopt” nonprofit organizations and provide them with donations.
“At the end of the day, we could train them all the things we were doing but they had no money,” said Morrison. “Not everyone has the ability to have a store and create their own money. We came out of the business world so it was easy for us. We decided why don’t we open more stores and give the money to these people who are doing good work. That’s what we did. In Warren County, we adopted the Warren County Food Bank, the Hope Center and the Senior Citizens Center.”
The local store also supports the Van Buren County Food Bank, says Morrison.
“In case y’all don’t know, Van Buren County has the oldest population per capita than any county in the state of Tennessee,” she said. “Thursday morning we will be giving out 40-pound boxes of food there. We’re providing those to about 300 families. Approximately 90 percent of them will be 62 years old or older.”
Similar bins are located in White County’s convenience centers and Morrison says those prevented more than 25,000 pounds from going into that county’s landfill in a three-month period.
“I met with White County in April,” she said. “We put our bins out in June. They told me after I have the bins out for three months, they wanted a report back. When we pick up from the bins, our drivers record how much is in the bin and how much we saved from the landfill. From June until Sept. 30, we had saved them 25,925 pounds from going to the landfill. The good news is we took it, sold it and gave it right back to White County.”
Serenity Pointe and Serenity Thrift are nonprofits.
“We have no hidden agenda,” said Morrison. “My husband is not paid a penny out of our stores. We had good careers. I’m on a salary. I run the whole operation for $20,000 a year. This is not about money for us. We are about changing lives.”
Committee members unanimously agreed to draft a resolution and present it to the full Warren County Commission for its consideration.