SEQUIM — Goodwill’s big blue truck, aka the Attended Donation Station, awaits “gently used” clothing and household items.
The truck is stationed between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. today through Wednesday evening in Sequim’s Safeway parking lot at 680 W. Washington St., a Goodwill spokesman announced last Friday.
Sequim’s 32,000-square-foot Goodwill store is set to have its ribbon cutting at 8:45 a.m. Thursday, according to Matthew Erlich, media relations manager for Tacoma Goodwill Industries.
The Sequim outlet, the agency’s 26th store, is in the former Rite Aid building just east of Safeway.
“We’ve been preparing for the opening of the store for months,” Erlich noted.
The donations truck will disappear once the Sequim Goodwill opens, “and we’ll have an easy drive-through donation center just right around at the back of the store. There will be plenty of signage to direct people,” he added.
Erlich and the Goodwill crew, including about 35 workers in the Sequim store, are expecting a crowd for the opening at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Throughout that day and the weekend, the store will feature many discounted items and giveaways, such as an iPod, a DVD player and $50 gasoline-credit cards.
The Sequim Goodwill, to be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays, will serve as a holding center and clearinghouse for the other two North Olympic Peninsula Goodwills, at 603 S. Lincoln in Port Angeles and at 602 Howard St. in Port Townsend.
Each store pulls shoppers and donors from a 10-mile radius, Erlich said.
That means Sequim’s outlet serves some 31,000 people, Port Angeles’ 10-mile radius covers 34,000 and Port Townsend has a population base of an additional 31,000.
For information about working for, shopping at or donating to any area Goodwill, visit www.tacomagood will.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.