Goodwill of the Finger Lakes has opened a new store in Canandaigua on May 27, at 9 a.m. Over 200 people were line waiting for the store to open. This will be the tenth store opened in the local area.
Amazing Property in Lakeville! 5707 Big Tree Rd
585-503-8750
The store opened in the former Bed, Bath, and Beyond store, near Aspen Dental, at 328 Eastern Blvd. Good Will is a second-hand non-profit that accepts donations, sells them at generally inexpensive prices, and then donates its profits to the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, as well as running the 211 information hotline, and sponsoring career opportunities.
According to Jennifer Lake, CEO of Goodwill, “In terms of Canandaigua, we have brought about 32-35 jobs here to Canandaigua….but Goodwill is not about selling things at a cheap price….we provide services to the visually impaired, to people needing 211 services, and this is how we fund it. It’s about job creation and generating money so we can support the 211 services and our help for the Blind and Visually Impaired…..this is about donations that are supporting those missions.”
We serve 211 at about 100,000 calls a year…..it’s an information service…. …It’s for people who know they need help about something, but they don’t know who to call. The calls tripled during the pandemic, when we were getting 300,000 calls a year, but now it seems 100,000 is what we are getting, but we get texts and chats now too, and it’s all available 24/7.”
We have a “good neighbor” policy where we give a lot of our stuff away to other agencies and organizations…housewares, sheets, clothes, all kinds of stuff. So when people donate, we distribute among our stores, but also share it with other agencies to help them serve the people they serve.
For more information on what Goodwill does, go to GoodwillFingerlakes.org
