Lord's Warehouse reopening on Longboat Key

Houses of worship on Longboat Key are opening up again, bringing a sense of normalcy to those lucky enough to land one of the few reserved seats. 

First it was St. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church. Then All Angels Episcopal Church opened its doors for small services, and so did St. Armands Key Lutheran Church. Now, Christ Church of Longboat Key is debating opening its doors in September. 

And also, the Lord’s Warehouse.

It’s not a church, but the thrift store attached to Longboat Island Chapel will open its doors on Sept. 5, acting both as a welcome-back to its loyal customers and a trial run for the chapel itself, which will reopen the following weekend. There's been some concern from older members and volunteers, who are staying home longer, but many are excited to get back. 

“We were waiting it out a little bit longer,” said Karen Pashkow, the Monday manager of the Lord’s Warehouse volunteers. “The church board didn't want us to open until the church opened ... Our area numbers are getting better. They just felt it was a safer time for us to go ahead and get people back in the church and open the warehouse and get a little bit of normalcy back.” 

Though the thrift store, which donates all its proceeds to charity, wasn’t taking donations in the beginning of the pandemic, they began again partway through the quarantine. However, when you’re not selling, you’re just filling up. The warehouse is packed right now. 

“If we don’t open, we won’t be able to accept any more pants,” fellow Monday volunteer Elise Passentino said. “We’re out of pants hangers.” 

The store has quite an inventory of backlogged donations, though they’ve offloaded some of their offerings to Turning Point and Stillpoint in Bradenton — mainly clothes donations to ease the increased amount of people needing help. However, though many folks have been using quarantine to sort through their homes and make big donations, the Lord’s Warehouse hasn’t really seen that. Also, there weren’t many people doing their typical “end-of-season cleaning” that nets a lot of donations in April and May. They may have more stuff, but it’s not because they’ve seen more donations. 

“Actually we’ve been losing donations because people have been going to other places that have been open,” volunteer Carol Peschel said. 

Volunteers have been tending to the donations that have come in for most of the summer, working in pairs with masks and tons of sanitizer as they clean, sort and price for the eventual return. It’s good to get out of the house, to do something useful and yet still have fun with another person — the highlight of this strange summer, Pashkow said. The different volunteers for different days argue good-naturedly over which day is best, and some volunteers have been working at the warehouse for years. Chris Fearing has been around for 14 years and appreciated the opportunity to have some normalcy by coming to the warehouse, even in crazy times, she said. 

“You feel like you’re doing something good for other humans,” Passentino said. 

The Lord’s Warehouse will reopen from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 5 and stick to those hours (their “summer hours” that never were) for the foreseeable future. They’re ready to be flexible, Pashkow said, and will add on a day based on success and demand. 

Only seven people (two volunteers and five shoppers) will be allowed to shop in the warehouse at a time and there may be a time limit gently imposed based on demand. Extra racks and other items will be outside to allow for fresh-air shopping and more customers to come by. Of course, masks will be required. 

“We tried to reopen once and the numbers went up so we had to back off,” Pashkow said. “We gotta open to clear this place out.”