Lord's Warehouse reopens to community acclaim

By Dana Kampa
| 7:30 a.m. February 3, 2025

Val Evanko, Joyce Mazurek and Dona Petruccelli run the counter at the Lord's Warehouse reopening.

Longboat Key
Neighbors

Elbow-to-elbow crowds milled among the goods offered at the grand reopening of The Lord's Warehouse on Feb. 1, where nary a trace of Hurricane Helene's devastation remained.

The high-end thrift store has several rooms filled with donated art, glassware, clothing and more, with even more racks of clothes outside when the weather abides.

The shop is run by the Longboat Key Chapel, and proceeds go toward supporting community members in need of assistance.

Organizers were thrilled to have a line out the door.

"We expected a big crowd, and it met our expectations for sure," Val Evanko said. "This is a hotspot of Longboat Key, and we've been closed for months, and we're so happy to be back."

She said it makes her, the volunteers and the wider community happy to have the warehouse back in business.

She encouraged people to "come, donate and shop."

Community members can drop off donations on the front porch to be sorted, Monday through Friday at the Northeast corner of the Chapel in the marked storage area.

Robbie and Judy Ross show off their finds from the reopening of The Lord's Warehouse.

author

Dana Kampa

Dana Kampa is the Longboat Key neighbors reporter for the Observer. She first ventured into journalism in her home state of Wisconsin, going on to report community stories everywhere from the snowy mountains of Washington State to the sunny shores of the Caribbean. She has been a writer and photographer for more than a decade, covering what matters most to readers.