Thrifty for 20 years

The Rawlins Thrift Exploratory Group (RTEG) is celebrating 20 years of providing service to Rawlins and Carbon County this month. In the two decades it has been in operation, however, the mission of RTEG (also known as the Rawlins Thrift Store) has changed.

“The initial RTEG and what they do today are a bit different. We’ve had to change our focus over the years,” said Janice White, an RTEG board member. “When it first started out, it was primarily a place where people that needed a therapeutic work environment could be employed. This could be physical, mental or other disabilities. Handicaps of any type or circumstances that diminished their employability at a regular job. They could hire there and we would make as many accommodations as necessary to keep them employed.”

According to White, this included pairing employees with job coaches who would work with the individual while they were at RTEG.

“Over the years, that has kind of changed because there have been—in the last five years—organizations that have come in and are doing more of the services for handicap people,” White said. “At one point, we were almost at the point of closing the store because we were no longer employing those people and it seemed our mission had either been accomplished or was being fulfilled somewhere else.”

Faced with the question of whether or not to close as their initial mission had been filled by other organizations, RTEG was informed by local residents—both those who shopped at the store and those donated to the store—that the Rawlins Thrift Store filled a very particular need for the community. Prior to two other thrift stores opening—Bridge Street Bargains in Saratoga and Sagebrush Senior Thrift Shop in Encampment—RTEG was one of the few places one could find low-cost household goods, clothing and furniture.

“It served a purpose because Rawlins has traditionally had a lot of people on social services,” said White.  “So, we thought it was important and through the board and some really dedicated employees we managed to resurrect her because she was kind of in the dumps for a while.” 

Bridge Street Bargains is known for their motto “You give, we give” relating to their input back into the Saratoga community through grants to other organizations such as the Saratoga Volunteer Fire Department and the Platte Valley Arts Council. RTEG has a similar approach.

“We are a non-profit, one of the big differences is we have to actually hire. So, part of our funding goes to employees and then we also do the same thing. We give back to the community whenever we can with what we make. Right now, we’re pretty much holding our own. We don’t see a lot of profit month-to-month,” White said. “We do wish we had more volunteers that would come down and help. It’s a monumentous (sic) task. We have two full-time employees and one part-time and, of course, we have a board of directors also. Our board of directors make nothing, our executive director makes nothing. She does it out of the goodness of her heart.” 

While the mission of RTEG has changed to closer match that of Bridge Street Bargains, the Rawlins Thrift Store is by no means in competition with either of the thrift stores in the Platte Valley. On the contrary, the three have worked together in various programs.

These include the Blue Jeans Go Green program, which recycles used denim for soundproof household insulation used by Habitat for Humanity. According to White, the three thrift stores have donated enough denim to insulate 27 houses. Initially, this required White to deliver pounds-upon-pounds of denim to Boulder to be donated to the program.

Now, thanks to the Zappos Native Remix program, denim can be shipped to Arizona without costing RTEG. The Native Remix program recycles used shoes and uses the material as floor insulation and rubberized playground fill. Zappos provided shipping labels both for its program in California and the Blue Jeans Go Green program.

Additionally, used plastics such as plastic bags and vegetable bags are sent to Colorado to the Daughter of the American Revolution. The recycling of these bags allows the Daughters of the American Revolution to be able to donate a park bench from Trex to the public space of their choice. RTEG has also recently been working with Interwest Paper out of Utah to recycle their unwanted or poor condition hardcover and paperback books.

The official celebration for RTEG of their 20th Anniversary begins next week. Along with various specials throughout the week, visitors can “Meet the Crew” on Monday and stop by on Friday for cookies and drinks.

The anniversary week will begin on June 13 and end on June 17. RTEG is located at 311 W. Cedar Street in Rawlins.