December 2, 2011

The Shops: Charity

The saying is that Charity begins at home and at local charity shops, it does. For this post, I am not talking about the multi-venue stores like Goodwill or Value Village, but smaller one-off shops run by churches, hospitals, and other charitable causes. Many of these shops have goods donated by members of the organization and are run almost exclusively by volunteers.

Today, I stopped in at the Carry On Shop, a project of the Johns Hopkins Women’s Committee. The shop is run by John and Kelly who are paid staff, and is located at the Hospital’s East Baltimore Campus. When you look through the names of the Women’s Committee, they are a pretty impressive group and have some friends with great taste and deep pockets.

That’s why you can go in and find something like this:

carry on 13Judith Leiber bag

carry on 2New Kate Spade Evening Sandals

carry on 9Gucci Loafers

carry on 10One of many many pairs of Ferragamo Shoes

In addition, they have original prints and artwork, furniture, china and crystal, as well as books. carry on 8You can see more images on this post from 2009.

Around Baltimore, some places which have shops are Good Samaritan Hospital, St. Paul’s Church in Ellicott CIty, Sheppard Pratt Hospital, and The Surprise Shop at the Trinity Church in Towson. Of course, there are a lot of smaller ones that I don’t know about. Many of them are only open a few days or hours a week, so you should call and check before you go.carry on 6

These shops do good for the charities they benefit and for the people who buy from them, even if one of those people is me!

5 comments:

  1. That JL bag is too cute.....did you think of me and my Christmas stocking perhaps??? LOL! For sure the small shops like this are often treasure troves of great finds. I have a few haunts in this area that totally fit the bill. Thanks for sharing, Meg.

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  2. When I was a small child, 50 years ago! My grandmother took me to The Carry On shop for $1 a bag Tuesday's,you could fill a brown paper shopping bag for $1!! It started the "bug" for me

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  3. Hi Meg, This is a super reminder. Also, the shop small business and shop local movements are great ways to benefit the community, as well as small business owners. Have a great week-end. Mary

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  4. I love the Surprise Shop - and I was ecstatic about my recent purchases there. I love the new header.

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  5. What a great idea, individual charity shops, not the huge charity chain stores we have in the UK. I am sure most of the money goes where it is needed other than on admin costs!
    Di
    x

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