After two years of waiting, praying and searching, Adelante Thrift was shot out of a cannon on October 29, when we finally signed a lease for the space at 3720 State Avenue in KCK! The store is on track to open its doors to the public on March 14, 2015. As we've prepared for launch, there has been a pretty exciting highlight list developing that demonstrates the gracious provision of the Lord for this project. We invite to read on and celebrate with us!
- Launch Team Initiated: Immediately upon signing the lease, a new "Launch Team" was formed with ten key leaders in charge of developing six key functional areas related to the launch of the store.
- Director Hired: Two weeks later, Adelante Thrift hired Matt Totsch, its director, to begin working full-time on the preparation process.
- Church Engagement: The word got out quickly, and in a short time the Lord has provided meaningful partnerships with 16 churches and church campuses who will participate in various ways in supporting the store.
- New Volunteers: Our most recent volunteer training day on January 10th included about 20 new volunteers representing five partner churches and a neighborhood group. We're recruiting more!
- Donation drives through partner churches are being planned for the months of February through April to provide the initial inventory for the store. So far there are seven drives scheduled and a handful of churches still working on setting a date.
- Construction Underway! On January 15th, we received our construction permit from the city, and demolition in the space began immediately. We've accomplished a lot already and the construction phase is on track to be complete by February 23rd so that we can finish the build-out of the store to be ready for opening day.
- Special Gifts: We've been blessed by people giving of their time and resources to help launch Adelante Thrift. Apart from financial gifts, we've also received several non-cash donations that have made a big difference. Bright Ideas Signs is making and installing our exterior lighted sign. Laminate Works is providing warehouse space for us to store seasonal items and other overflow items that don't fit on our retail floor.
- Funding: We established a start-up budget of $250,000 and prayed the Lord would meet this mark to provide the necessary funds to get the store ready and pay salaries and other expenses for the first few months of store operations. We're excited to announce that we've received $245,526 toward this goal with an additional $6250 in commitments that we should receive soon! Now we're working on raising an addition $20,000 to build in a little breathing room to the start-up budget.
We thank you for your generous giving and your partnership with Mission Adelante and Adelante Thrift! Let's keep moving forward and celebrating the ways the Lord is working to transform our community!
Other news:
- The Moms Matters group from Westside Family Church created some adorable valentines that were handed out to our Kids Club Kids on Tuesday night! The kids loved the special surprise!
- We are looking forward to taking all of our Leaders in Training to Skyzone, an indoor trampoline park, to reward them for all of their hard work. We love helping the kids see that hard work in life pays off!
Current needs:
- Leaders in Training, Mission Adelante, Inc.'s after-school leadership development and tutoring program is serving 30 kids this year! We go through around 60 individually wrapped snacks each week! We are currently running low on snacks. Would you or your small group consider picking up healthy pre-packaged snacks for a week? If you are able to supply some snacks, message email Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org