New Goodwill Location In Woodstock Gets Ready to Open

Wednesday, 17 February 2016 05:40

The new Woodstock Goodwill will open as planned despite the bad news for other Goodwill locations.

WOODSTOCK - The brand new Goodwill store in Woodstock will open its doors on March 3rd.

They plan on having a big ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. at the new location on Dundas Street at the former Saint Rita's Church location.

President and CEO of Goodwill Ontario Great Lakes Michelle Quintyn says they are still expanding in the South West, despite some negative news recently about Goodwill Stores in Ontario where a few had to close down in the GTA and the Eastern and Toronto locations have also filed for bankruptcy protection.

"We are still as an organization separate and distinct from the Toronto operation. We are very much expanding, thriving, and continuing to grow and this is a great example of that where we get to create an additional 15 employment opportunities than were currently present in the old location in Woodstock."

She says they could no longer meet the growing demand for Woodstock at their old location which is why they built the new store. One thing they are asking is for people to continue making donations, as they will need more items to fill the shelves. Quintyn also wanted to thank the public for their generous support.

"The community of Woodstock has been one of our more generous communities across our region; they have really stepped up and continue to donate, and we continue, and probably more than ever, need those donations and I really just want to thank the community for all they have done."

Quintyn says they decided to build the new store because they had simply run out of space at their old location.

"It's got a much larger community store and training platform for the work we do where we hire people who are sometimes shut out of the labour market because they face barriers. It's a really large space that's able to do both our business operation and also serve our mission. It will also have a large community space for them to collaborate with their employment and training partners."