JoAnn Store Donation to Girl Scouts

This was the line at my front door at 9 AM. I had a great morning that I have to share with you.

Do you ever wonder what happens to the craft merchandise after it goes out of season, and has been on Clearance? Too many times, it will end up in the dumpster. Let me tell you about our local JoAnn store.

I love JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts. Leesburg has a super-size JoAnn store, so it's nice and large, and offers a variety of classes. I've taken plenty of classes there, and frequent the store enough that I've become friends with several of the people that work there.

About two years ago, one of the JoAnn employees told me that the Girl Scouts became an approved non-profit organization that the store could direct their discard merchandise for donation. Knowing that I am involved with scouts and am a leader for my own girls' troops, she asked if I would want to accept their donation to distribute to other Girl Scout leaders in the area. I definitely said yes! This store had been having problems getting other charitable organizations to actually come out to pick up their merchandise.

About every few months now, I'll get a call from them for a GS donation. I go right out to get it.

The size of the donations varies from small to very large.

I'll go through each box one at a time to sort and organize the contents.

Sometimes we get fabric!

I get to take over DH's Man Cave in the basement to set up shop.

Here are some setup pics of their donated merchandise...

Can you believe all this stuff? I get the word out to local leaders that I'll be having an Open House. I request $1 donation towards the Girl Scouts organization for all they care to take.

I held an Open House this morning.

At the first Open Houses, I feared no one will come, but it's always been a great turn out, and seems to have become a very popular event.

There is so much for the leaders to use for their service projects and troop activities. Just about everything is taken. I have a friend I call my "Sweeper". She will come back after the Open House and take anything remaining and give to another charity.

If you are a GS leader, you may want to ask your local JoAnn store about their donating of discard merchandise. I've gotten a leader in a nearby town connected with her local JoAnn, and they now contact her for their discards.

A cute little bird house that was in today's donation.

Even though DH doesn't like storing the boxes of merchandise in our basement, distributing these donations is probably my favorite GS task. It saves all this merchandise from the dumpsters and landfills, and it goes into hands of crafty, service-minded individuals. How great is that?

5 comments

sewingladyDecember 7, 2012 at 8:19 PM
I came across your blog and I love it!
A+February 26, 2013 at 5:23 PM
Many thanks to Sara for all her help too with the Joann donation project. She is a huge help and a wonderful Girl Scout!
HollyJune 14, 2014 at 8:13 PM
I am a Girl Scout leader in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and I have been researching service project ideas today. Some of them include no sew fleece projects and I just googled "Do fabric stores donate to Girl Scouts?" and it brought me here. You have no idea how excited this makes me and I will be contacting me local Jo-Ann's stores to find out if they will donate to our service unit! Thank you so much for this post!