While the response to recent natural disasters has shown the generosity of the Auburn family, students can continue the spirit locally through thrift stores.
Lifesavers Mission Thrift and Harvest Thrift Supercenter are local stores that are giving back to the community through donations and a portion of their revenues.
"People bring us their gently used, unwanted items from their houses," said Mike Freeman, manager of Lifesavers.
Once the items are received, thrift stores process them, deciding what can be resold.
Greg Boyd, director of Thrift Store Services at Harvest Thrift Supercenter, said if an item can be resold, it is given a new price and placed on a shelf.
"We only try to put the best of the best out there," Freeman said. "And then we try to have an outstanding price on them."
Both thrift stores offer the option of picking up donations from a location if the donor calls in advance. They also give donors a tax-deductable receipt when a donation is made.
"What we don't like to see is college kids setting stuff out on the side of the road when they could have called us and had us come pick it up," Freeman said. "That way it goes to a good cause versus it gets put in a landfill somewhere."
Boyd said college students make up a large amount of customers because of the inexpensive cost of furniture.
"When I was looking for a couch, no one else had prices as low," said Trey Spratlin, junior in pre-nursing. "And it's for a good cause. I don't know why anyone would shop anywhere else."
However, managers of both stores said that their biggest seller is clothing. Boyd said members of Auburn's Greek community often buy clothes for theme socials and swaps from Harvest Thrift Store.
While prices depend on the condition of the merchandise, Freeman said Lifesavers's prices are 50 to 75 percent lower than that of a regular store.
Whenever a purchase is made, these stores also give back to the community.
"The money that goes to the register goes right back into Lee County," Freeman said. "We have a ministry in Opelika, over on Waverly Parkway, where they send out seven or eight big school buses every Saturday morning all over Lee County to the low-income neighborhoods."
Lifesavers picks up children from these neighborhoods and takes them to the church for what Freeman described as Sunday school on Saturday.
On Saturday afternoons Lifesavers employees drive to West Point, Ga. and host Sunday school from their truck.
During the week, Freeman said Lifesavers has an academy that picks up kids from school and mentors them, including helping with homework. Freeman said the activities average 500 to 600 kids each week.
"It's a pretty big operation," Freeman said.
Lifesavers also has volunteers, including church youth groups and criminals of misdemeanors completing community service.
Boyd said Harvest Thrift Supercenter funds His Place, Josiah's House, Hope's Inn and Hope Clinic Home, which all are for individuals trying to overcome addictions.
Boyd said there are 40 to 60 people at a time in the program. Each person is also provided transportation for that year.
"We take people in our homes for one year," Boyd said. "(We) feed them, clothe them, take them to church and help them get a grip on whatever problem it is that is controlling their life."
On a daily basis, Harvest will have four to eight volunteers from the homes help out around the store.
"Part of the rehabilitation of an addicted person is to regain their work ethic," Boyd said. "That also gives our donators and our customers an opportunity to see who's actually benefitting from their donation."
Boyd has also done many other things in service to the community. He said he has also donated $60,000 to $70,000 to burn victims, families in need and former inmates needing clothes for job interviews.
Lifesavers Mission Thrift and Harvest Thrift Supercenter are great examples of what thrift stores are doing for the Auburn area, but they are not alone. There are other stores in the area that accept donations, including the Salvation Army.
"We are honored and privileged to be able to come to a place and do God's Kingdom's work right here on Earth," Boyd said. "And we need people to continue donating things so we can keep doing it."
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