Elisabeth Heslop
After many years of serving the community, “The Treasure Chest” is closing its doors.
Located at 338 Scott St., the Fort Frances and District Association For Community Living-run consignment store was started to provide a venue for people with intellectual disabilities to get training and experience in the retail sales business, which they then can take with them to other jobs.
“The whole gist of ‘The Treasure Chest’ was to provide an opportunity for people to learn those [business] skills, but we find that actually they learn those skills a lot faster and a lot better in that business environment,” said acting manager Laureen Vandetti.
“And we’re prepared to go in and work alongside those people and support them to learn those skills, whether it be at Safeway, Canadian Tire, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, Wal-Mart, wherever,” she stressed.
“The local businesses have been awesome. They have been really supportive of what we’re doing,” Vandetti stressed.
“People go to them and then [the businesses] find that the work that people do is really, really exceptional actually because we find that people are really dedicated, they’re good employees, have really good skills and they want to work.
“And that’s the key: wanting to work.”
Vandetti said the success rate of the program has been high. And over the years, as she’s watched the workers that come there for training, she’s noticed one particular characteristic that distinguishes them.
“They are the most dedicated employees you could probably ever have,” she remarked. “Nobody takes sick time and we actually have a hard time getting people to take their vacations because they just love to work; they love to be part of that, part of that whole, ‘I’ve got a job’ thing. . . .
“We all know how important our jobs are for us and it’s no different for anybody who has a disability,” she stressed. “They want to feel like they’re being useful and being part of the community, having a job.”
The store’s usefulness as a training facility has been declining steadily for some time now, leading to the decision to close it,
Vandetti said.
“I’m sure people will be like, ‘Oh, the economy wiped us out,’ but really, no,” she noted. “Our point wasn’t to make money, it was to provide opportunities, but we still have to manage to pay the light bills and the rent and the wages of the individuals and that sort of thing.
“It’s been quite successful,” she added. “It’s a nice option for people to have that consignment thing, but as time has gone on, there’s not as many people interested in getting those skills and the time spent on it is better spent elsewhere.
“Our staff support time can be better spent helping people find jobs in the community,” Vandetti reasoned. “And that’s our goal, to build those skills up so people can then move into the community.”
Vandetti said that as the need for the store has declined, Community Living has been seeking other ways of helping intellectually-challenged individuals find employment.
“The staff that are working there [at ‘The Treasure Chest’] now will go out with people to hopefully other employment and support them,” she explained. “Usually what we’ll do is we’ll go in and do a job development.
“You know, this is what the person has to learn, and then get them through that process.
“Sometimes it takes months before the individual is there working on their own and so that’s what we need our staff to be doing, rather than selling stuff.”
Even once the store is closed, Vandetti said Community Living will continue to own the building, so “if somewhere down the road we decide we’re going to try something different, we still have that opportunity.”
The doors will close for the final time on Friday, Aug. 28, but the weeks leading up to that date will be one big sale.
This week (July 20-24) everything is 50 percent off. Next week, it will be 60 percent off, the following week 70 percent off, and so on until the last week (Aug. 24-28) when everything will be free.
“Our last week is a give-away week,” Vandetti noted. “Anything that is left we hope to give away.”
The store is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
