in her toughest times and ….
in her toughest times and also led to her love for helping people get through their toughest times.
“They had ‘Celebrating Sobriety’ which they were still doing during the beginning of the pandemic. I went there Thursday night and found out about volunteering. My son and I went on Friday to volunteer and it just snowballed from there,” Sessions said.
That journey led her on a volunteering path that she attributes to helping her get through the pandemic.
“We were feeding about 200 or 250 people including children bagged lunches,” Sessions said. “We did that all through the beginning of Covid until they started to open things up. I truly found my passion. I knew exactly what I needed and wanted to do in life and that was to help others. No matter what it took.”
Her trips to AA helped her deal with an alcohol addiction that led to liver failure. Throughout the experience, Sessions received help from numerous people which laid the groundwork for her life in recovery.
“I just knew that with my sobriety, the most important thing was to help others because I had so much help from others when my liver failed,” Sessions said. “I’m here for information, I’m here for the food pantry, I’m here to help people sponsor. I have a few people that have come in that I already sponsor because they were looking for a sponsor but they didn’t know where to go.”
Coming to Abbotsford
During her recovery, Sessions helped organize a thrift store at a Bridge Street Mission warehouse which provided clothes, toys and much more to families and children in need. Once that building was slated to be sold, Sessions looked for a new building to grow the second chance outreach.
After a few opportunities in Wausau fell through, Sessions settled on Abbotsford as the host city and the East Town Mall had space that allowed her to bring items from the Wausau location and take in much more.
She said the timing and opportunity couldn’t have worked out any better.
“This place just fell in my lap. I saw a niche that was needed. Everything was just perfect. I have a wonderful landlord and its a wonderful community.”
Sessions said her passion for retail and business came from an early age when she helped her father with various tasks at their family-owned small business.
Sessions herself is a 100 percent volunteer and is joined by volunteers Kathie Fifield, Greg Fifield, Sherry Schneider and Maxwell Meier.
The pantry is up and running and is open on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Anyone can register to join by stopping in during pantry hours.
Sessions said that the goal would be to get enough volunteers to staff the pantry so that it can be open whenever the thrift store is open.
Currently, the thrift store is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sessions said on top of volunteers, the biggest thing the thrift store and food pantry needs is help with their website, AA batteries and cleaning supplies. She said there are shelves upon shelves of clothes, knick knacks, toys, games and almost anything else you can think of that need to be organized to fit more inventory.
The nonprofit uses money raised by sales on thrift items to purchase items for the food pantry. Sessions said the pantry and store wouldn’t be possible without the help of partner organizations in Abbotsford and the surrounding communities.
Sessions said during Christmas time, the thrift store will try to go above and beyond to donate toys, clothes, games and other gifts to kids who might not otherwise get anything during the holiday. She said it’s only made possible by community partners such as Great Deals, another store in the East Town Mall.
The store has other unique opportunities to support the store with instore raffles, sign or other craft making, donations on their Facebook page and more. The store will also be hosting a brat fry at County Market on Sept. 16 and 17 to raise $3,000 by the end of September for new freezers.
Crafters can stop at the store to paint wooden signs topped with vinyl print, all donated by Sessions, for $25 and up with proceeds going to the pantry and thrift store.
For more information, head to the Second Chance Gift and Thrift Facebook page, stop in during store hours or call them at 715316-0193.
ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING -Second Chance Gift and Thrift has shelves and shelves of new and used items. The store has multiple sections that include jewlery, electronics, clothing, books, decorations, cleaning utensils and much more.STAFF PHOTO/NEAL HOGDEN
