News

Mission in the News

Thrift store resumes its mission

Daily Record ‒ Published: March 24, 2012

MORRISTOWN — All is right with the world again at the Market Street Mission Thrift Store, which drew a few hundred shoppers to its grand reopening Saturday.

“I come here every now and then,” said Wanda Brown of Netcong, while checking out the shoe department. “They’ve got good stuff and the prices are reasonable. I’m just glad they reopened.

The 25,000-square-foot store and accompanying warehouse sits along the Whippany River, which overflowed its banks when Tropical Storm Irene struck last August.

“We got hit hard,” said Steve Cook, store director. “The water was knee-deep inside. Irene even took out cars. It took out a 26-foot International diesel truck we had sold.”

As he spoke, shoppers clutching 20 percent coupons they’d been given at the entrance, browsed in every department — from shirts to sideboards. Cook shook hands, waved, and smiled.

“I’ve been blessed in so many ways,” he said. “We’ve been blessed in so many ways.”

Recovery entailed two weeks of cleaning and three months of rebuilding with a groundswell of community help, including $69,000 in donations and a lot of volunteer labor from Habitat for Humanity, Liquid Church, Bethel A.M.E. Church, and College Hunks Hauling Junk.

With all that help, the men of Market Street Mission had the store up and running for business just before Christmas.

Total losses during those months were estimated at $175,000, including lost sales and damaged facilities and goods, according to Philip Parsels, development director. Typically, the store raises $700,000 of the Mission’s $3.6 million annual operating budget.

The grand reopening was a thank you and a celebration of all the goodwill the recovery generated.

A Morristown fixture since 1889, Market Street Mission helps some 50 men at a time recover from alcohol and drug addiction in a residential program that includes Bible study, group and individual counseling, classes, and work therapy in the thrift store.

The store draws customers from Morris, Union, and Somerset counties as well as New York. That’s partially because of the buys people can get on donated merchandise. The store is a great way for people to furnish living spaces—couches were selling for $110 Saturday — or search for decorative treasures.

Carol Czajkowski of Morristown was looking to replace dishes no longer made.

“They do have them here,” she said, pointing to a white Pfaltzgraff set. “This is a good place to get replacement pieces. There also are beautiful selections here for somebody who needed a whole set.”

But there’s more to the thrift store than thriftiness.

“A lot of people know the proceeds go right back into our Market Street Mission and help the guys,” Cook said.

One of the men, Cecil Young, helped people bring items to their cars. He paused to look at the crowds and the beautiful restoration and smiled.

“This was a disaster area,” he said, “but a lot of good came out of it. We all worked together and we built it back up.”

The Market Street Mission Thrift Store is open to shoppers 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, including donations, click here.

Volunteers work to rebuild Morristown Market Street Mission after Hurricane Irene flooding

Star-Ledger Published: Saturday, November 05, 2011

MORRISTOWN — At the Market Street Mission in Morristown today, 31-year-old Jared Bruce worked furiously.

His trowel moved rhythmically as it coasted down a vacant grey wall, only stopping while he checked his work to ensure that the white patches of joint compound he applied around the edges of the drywall were clean and smooth.

The Mission wasn’t paying him. He was paying it back.

Five months ago, the Market Street Mission, which has come to the aid of men crippled by drug and alcohol addiction for more than a century, took Bruce in and helped him piece back together his life, which had been fractured by heroin and cocaine.

Now, two months after flooding caused by Hurricane Irene completely destroyed the Market Street Mission, he’s helping prop up the group that offered its hand in his time of need.

“I was on the verge of losing everything,” said the father of three and former construction business owner. “This Mission helped save that for me. This is what it’s all about, giving back and helping others.”

Bruce was one of dozens of volunteers working to rebuild the Mission today. He worked alongside members of Liquid Church, which has a ministry in Morristown, Habitat for Humanity and College Hunks Hauling Junk as they transformed the transitional living facility from a hollowed out structure into the home it once was. The building has been a place where graduates of the Mission’s program can live as they get back on their feet.

“I can’t tell you how encouraging this is,” said David Scott, Sr., the Mission’s Executive Director. “(Two months ago) there was a refrigerator floating around the kitchen.”

In the weeks after Irene struck, College Hunks Hauling Junk owner Stephen Bienko spent days hauling flood-damaged furniture and debris following the storm the storm. He wanted to help someone rebuild, so he contacted Habitat for Humanity and Liquid Church, who recommended helping the Mission.

“It came out of knowing that we can not assume the government will always be there to help us,” Bienko said. “It’s a drive to show people this is how we can get things done.” For Morristown resident Andrew Sichko IV, who graduated from the Mission’s program in 2008 after battling a 17-year addiction to heroin, today was about saving the Mission that helped save his life.

“When I came here, I felt like there was no hope and I found hope,” he said. “I don’t even have to sign up for things like thi; they know I’ll be here.”

Market Street Mission's transitional house restored with help of 150 volunteers

The Daily Record – November 5, 2011

MORRISTOWN — With shovels, paintbrushes and power tools in hand, 150 volunteers — mostly from Liquid Church — spent Saturday restoring a Lincoln Street home for men overcoming addictions that was destroyed by Hurricane Irene in August.

“It’s unbelievable you have this level of people who care,” said Lester Thomas, 47, a graduate in August of the Market Street Mission program.

The hurricane left the Market Street Mission’s transitional home on Lincoln Street with four feet of water, moldy walls and bacteria-soaked furniture. The Christian-based Mission provides temporary shelter and food to people in need, and, through its long-term program, assists men in overcoming drug and alcohol addictions and soberly re-enter society.

Organizations and businesses with big hearts collaborated in a daylong, volunteer goal of rebuilding the house, where five men in the last stages of completing the Mission program live for about three months.

The restoration coincided with the Market Street Mission’s 22nd annual winter coat giveaway on The Green in Morristown. Mission Executive Director G. David Scott, who hustled between The Green and Lincoln Street, said about 4,000 coats would be given away this year.

“It’s cool to know there are people out there with big hearts to help us,” said Mission resident Alex Suckey, who was outside the Lincoln Street house in a T-shirt with a table saw cutting wood to be used for bathroom window trim.

The Mission’s thrift shop on nearby George Street also was extensively damaged by flooding and is in the process of being restored. Eighteen trash bins full of clothing and furniture, an estimated $75,000 loss, had to be discarded from the thrift shop.

Liquid Church, a Christian-based, nondenominational church with locations in Morristown, Nutley and New Brunswick, was at the forefront of the transition housing restoration with its vast number of volunteers. Prior to Saturday, volunteers gutted the interior of the house so that workers were ready to install new cabinetry, flooring and tiles in the rooms.

“I think there is so much volunteer response because they see a need. Hurricane Irene transcended all ethnic and monetary backgrounds,” said Pastor Tom Kang of Morristown’s Liquid Church campus. In a “pay-it-foward” sentiment, the three New Jersey churches recently have donated more than $60,000 to immediate assistance projects, Kang said.

“We just want to bring hope back to the men in this program,’’ said Kenny Jahng, media and innovation pastor of the church.

Volunteers were on hand from Morris Habitat for Humanity, with Executive Director Blair Schleicher Bravo on a stepladder in the basement painting windows glossy gray. Liquid Church member Charlie Bautz of Roxbury used his skills as a builder and carpenter to lower some kitchen windows and build new jambs.

Volunteers from College Hunks Hauling Junk and the Shauger Group landscaped the backyard, built a stone patio, created a sand ring for tetherball playing and dug a fire pit, a cozy outdoor feature for chilly nights.

In every room of the house, volunteers were sanding, scraping, sawing or painting. College Hunks company President Stephen Bienko, who started the business with cousin Nick Lombardi, said he strongly believes in “social entrepreneurship,” or building business by giving back.

A 1994 Delbarton School graduate, Bienko said he is a big believer in not waiting around for government to help.

“We cannot assume the government is going to help us. This is the only way you make improvements from devastation. The only way you rebuild is together,” Bienko said. Lester Thomas, the Market Street Mission graduate, said he never dreamed three years ago that today he would enjoy praying, being sober, having his General Equivalency Diploma, and running his own business, New Creation Painting. He said he is indebted to the Mission to helping him overcome addiction to painkillers.

“The Mission saved my life. They give you all the tools. You just have to do it,” Thomas said.

Liquid Church Gives Back to the Community

Liquid Church, one of the many churches that partners with the Market Street Mission, has launched a new program to give back to the community.

They conducted a “reverse offering,” giving envelopes of cash away to congregants, encouraging them to give back to the community. They were featured on CNN recently. Click here to watch the video.

They hope that by giving money away to their congregation, it will be reinvested to help improve the community and eventually come back around to benefit the church.

Click here to watch a video of Pastor Tim Lucas talking with Jeff, the house manager at our transitional home, about the devastation from Hurricaine Irene.

Liquid Church has been a long-time supporter of the Market Street Mission and we hope to continue to partner with them to help the neediest in our community.

Flooding Takes Toll at Mission

The Market Street Mission Thrift Store on George Street was knocked out of operation after being flooded. The first floor was full of mud Tuesday as workers cleaned up.

“The whole first floor of furniture and clothing was wiped out,” said Phil Parsels, the Mission’s Director of Development.

Parsels said he expects the thrift store to be out of commission for three weeks. The lack of income during that time and the destruction of merchandise would set back the Mission between $25,000 and $50,000, he said.

He added that the Mission does not have flood insurance.

He said the Mission’s transitional housing in the area was also flooded, putting four men in the Mission’s religion-based susbstance abuse program out of a home along with a facility manager and his family.

Article courtesy of the Daily Record, 8/31/11.

Thank You Hanover Park High School!

Special thanks to Hanover Park High School in East Hanover. They invited a couple of men from the Mission’s New Life Program to speak at an assembly at their school. Afterwards, the faculty and students collected donations for the Mission. They raised almost $1,600 dollars in cash and collected about $500 dollars worth of much-needed toiletry items! The school representatives dropped off the donation and were treated to a tour of the Mission.

(Pictured: Executive Director G. David Scott and House Manager Robert Evans with Hancock Park High School staff and students)

Girls Scouts bless the Mission with song

A troop of Girl Scouts from Montville, NJ visited the Mission a few days before Christmas to sing Christmas carols and deliver home-baked cookies to our guests at dinnertime. They helped make the season bright for the homeless and needy!

Homeless get helping hands-lots of them-at Morristown expo

Chris started drinking at 13.

“I loved the feeling right away, the warm feeling. I was confident, felt no fear… I was better looking and taller when I drank,” he recounted on Thursday at Project Homeless Connect in Morristown.

Click here to read more.

Addicts Find Redemption at Market Street Mission

Man went from college professor, to drinking in his car, to prison before seeking help at the Mission.

You have have not showered in days. You're sleeping in your car, or you're sleeping in the park. Your eyes are bloodshot, your head is pounding. You'd kill for just one more drink, but you're out of money and you're running out of hope. And, your only salvation is a chapel floor, shared by 19 other men.

Click here to read more.

Morristown Patch Ushers in Site Launch With Day of Volunteerism

The Patch "Give 5" program promotes volunteerism by Patch employees throughout their communities.

On Tuesday, Aug. 17, a row of Patch employees, bedecked in white t-shirts with the bold green logo of the company they work for, set to trimming back the overgrowth besieging a fence at the Market Street Mission Thrift Store as part of the company's nationwide "Give 5" volunteerism campaign.

Click here to read more.