St. Vincent DePaul fosters community based on giving and bargains
The price is right at the St. Vincent DePaul store in Jasper, but it’s more than cheap prices on used clothing, household items and toys that keeps more than 30 customers lined up at the door before noon; it’s about community.
A circle of ten occupied folding chairs camp in front of the doors waiting for the store to open at noon. People laugh and chat covered in jackets and blankets while others stand around in the beginnings of a loose line. They are here to socialize and help each other.
The earliest customer is Jim; he arrives at 8:30 most mornings, waiting for the store to open at noon. He brings extra chairs in his trunk in case someone needs one.
“The store has all kinds of reasonable stuff,” Jim says. “I couldn’t use all I get out of here.”
Jim offers me tomatoes while I’m speaking with him. Jim is here for the good deals but he also gives away many of the items he finds and he doesn’t see how the community would do without the store.
This humble setting brings the community together. People from across the tri-county area come together to gossip, shop and meet in the middle. The gathering at the store samples the community’s makeup; it isn’t only for the desperately poor. Shoppers cross racial and class divisions as farmers in overalls and women carrying fancy handbags wait in line with pregnant mothers.
Many of the shoppers have also donated unused items; helping each other is a central theme here.
Darin Cummins gets in line to the “Toy Store” with his 4-year old son. Darin works full-time at the French Lick Casino and his wife attends VUJC. They started shopping at St. Vincent DePaul after a house fire consumed much of their belongings. They continue to come weekly to subsidize the cost of raising 3 boys.
“It’s obvious that the economy is declining and it’ll get worse,” Darin says.
A tornado that tore through Celestine in February left significant damage in its path. St. Vincent DePaul helped citizens affected by the tornado by providing clothing and other necessities. Gerald Austin, of Celestine, was hit by the tornado. He arrives at the St. Vincent DePaul store every day around 10:30.
“I come here to associate with people,” Gerald says. “It’s a pastime during the day. You can’t always sit at home. We gather here and sit here and talk until its time to go inside.”
Gerald says the economy is in terrible shape. He draws Social Security and says there have been no cost of living raises in the past few years. He holds up a green acquisition. “I collect tractors.”
As the clock clicks closer to noon more and more people arrive, filling the parking lot with similar stories. They meander to the end of the queue; the line is far from straight as people turn towards each other to chat. When the door finally opens they slowly fill the store looking for new discoveries or needed items.
The suffering economy has revolutionized a person’s sense of consumerism. As online item trading sites such as Craigslist and Freecycle boom, so do stores like St. Vincent DePaul, which are about helping each other out. The St. Vincent DePaul Society distributes thousands of dollars each year to Dubois County citizens in need . The group also offers free hot meals three days per week.
