18 June 2015

Poway Salvation Army Family Store Reopens after 4 Week Remodel

20-year-old Salvation Army Family Store helping to keep 150-year-old program alive.

Poway, California (June 17, 2015) After a long awaited interior remodel, the 11,400-square-foot Poway Family Store will reopen to much fanfare Thursday, June 25th, 2015 at 9 a.m. The public is invited to celebrate the store’s Grand Re-Opening festivities, complete with Poway Mayor Steve Vaus and The Salvation Army brass band.

Located in the heart of Poway, the Poway Family Store has been serving the community for 20 years. The store remodel includes new exterior paint and signage, handicap accessible parking, and updated interior carpeting, flooring, shelving, counters & dressing rooms. When the store opens at 9 a.m. the first 100 customers each day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, will receive a free gift. Customers can also look forward to door prizes, music, refreshments, and a lucky someone will win the GRAND PRIZE, a shopping spree valued at $500. Partnering with Neighborhood Healthcare, customer overflow parking will be available in the adjacent lot.

For many, The Salvation Army Poway Family Store provides a thrifty shopping experience, helping struggling families make ends meet. Others come looking for vintage or hard-to-find items. Donors have made the Poway site grow to be the largest of 10 donation drop-off sites in the county. But there is one thing shoppers and donors alike have in common: their faithful support of an organization whose mission is to serve others, without discrimination.

One in ten adults suffers from alcoholism or drug abuse; 1 in 6 others are affected by it. “The Salvation Army has been transforming lives and reuniting families for 150 years. Our message to the community is very simple,” says Major Henry Graciani, pastor and administrator of The Salvation Army San Diego Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC). “Donate and shop with The Salvation Army, you’ll be Doing the Most Good. Your donations get resold in our 7 San Diego County Family Stores and are the main source of funding for our Adult Rehabilitation Center.”

Some recovery programs can cost upwards of $10K-$50K per month. The Salvation Army program is free to participants, and it has the largest and most successful network of Adult Rehabilitation Centers in the country, with over 150 in the United States alone. “At the ARC, we believe in restoring individuals to their loved ones through a comprehensive program that includes counseling, work therapy and spiritual development," continues Major Graciani. “Looking at the faces of family members touched by a loved one’s newfound sobriety is thanks enough and it is the reason we do what we do,” says Major Graciani. To understand the scope of the operation, 12,000 meals per month are served to 130 men and women at The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center, a 6+ month, 12 step, residential rehabilitation facility in Downtown San Diego.

“Our work in the community is ongoing”, says Major Graciani. “Each year, we have over 100 graduates whose lives are transformed and who are reunited with their families. In turn, they affect over 700 other lives - that is a community of people with a renewed hope and spirit.”