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New Salvation Army building in Manassas more than typical thrift store
“It’s a completely different world.”
Joel DeMoss, a manager at the new Salvation Army Family Store in Manassas, was not exaggerating when comparing the Balls Ford Road location of his employer to its former location at the intersection of Sudley Road and Rosemary Drive.
Construction began on the $10.5 million facility by project owner and general contractor LF Jennings on Sept. 1, 2007, according to the Web site Reedconstructiondata.com. With a retail section of 27,000 square feet and a warehouse that’s 10,000 square feet bigger than that, the new Salvation Army store dwarfs its former location.
“This is the premiere store, literally, for the Salvation Army in the entire country,” said Major Mike Vincent, who oversees regional operations for the Salvation Army in Northern Virginia.
When doors opened last month, comparing the two stores was like placing a pawn shop next to a Target or Wal-Mart.
Instead of a pot-hole filled parking lot where about 150 people would typically make donations on a Saturday, according to Vincent, the three-lane donation center complete with canopy roof provides a much smoother visit for the 300 to 500 Saturday donors that stop by Saturdays at the new location.
“It’s easier to drive in,” said Haymarket resident Jay McCall on Nov. 29. A long-time donor to the former Manassas stop, McCall was making his first visit to the new place so he could unload a plethora of items ranging from life preservers to kitchenware.
Standing up in the back of his black Dodge Ram pickup, he would lift up groups of items and place them into white canvass bins as a staff member came near to help out.
There is “no waiting around,” said McCall. He also complimented the staff for being “knowledgeable.”
Among the staffers were eclectic mixes of people who have come from all over the country before working at the new Manassas store.
“You don’t have to stand in the rain,” said Fred Oliver as he stood under the car canopy waiting for the next arrival of donations to come in after McCall drove away. A New Orleans native, the Manassas resident said the Salvation Army Family Store was the first company to respond to him while he was seeking a new job.
“Everyone is like family,” Oliver said, “because everyone works together, sticks together” in what he described as a “polite and convenient” environment.
Julian Barnes wrapped up the yellow cord sticking out from his vacuum with a purple lid on it as he took a break from cleaning the floor as he walked in front of a cashier.
A Washington, D.C. resident, Barnes fell on some hard times and was arrested after smoking and selling cocaine. The father of 10 children “bottomed out” about two years ago when he was beat up and robbed.
“Everything was going so bad for me, I was just giving up on myself,” said Barnes.
He eventually checked in the Adult Rehabilitation Center in Annandale where Major Vincent works with down and out men aged 21 to 65 through Bible studies as well as more traditional rehabilitation work.
“They’ve just hit a difficult place in their life,” said Vincent about the men who enter the ARC. The free program provides not only food and a place to stay, but also includes a six-month work-therapy program, which Barnes, now clean, sober and reunited with his family, was just days away from completing.
“This has nothing to do with these guys being employees here,” said Vincent, referring to the store that played host to eight ARC graduates prior to Barnes’s completion. Vincent added that he planned to hire Barnes as a full-time janitor upon graduation.
Even though the ARC handles people who were past drug users and alcoholics, Vincent said he can tell potential employers in his letters of recommendation for ARC graduates that he can guarantee them for the last six months, the person they are considering hiring has been accountable and stayed sober.
“None of us can change what happened yesterday but the days ahead can be different,” he said.
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