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For more than a year, Jeanette Fairchild has emptied the Combined Community Services clothing collection box.
She has been told to stop that practice now, and she isn't happy about it.
"Dan Clay (CCS' director of client services) came to me," Fairchild said of the task. At the time she operated a thrift shop, Heart for Humanity, in Winona Lake until maintaining the facility became too much of an expense.
She's operated the unlicensed charity out of her home on Wooster Road for the last few months. She also advertises to collect garage sale leftovers on a regular basis.
"I went in and talked to them (at CCS), saying I would have yard sales periodically to get rid of things," she said of the agreement, "so I could pay my overhead and help the people I keep."
Fairchild "keeps" two teenagers whose mother won't look after them.
She gives clothes away to anyone who asks. At the yard sales, she tells customers the proceeds go to charity.
CCS referred clients to her for free clothing. Fairchild said CCS clients with a family came with a $10 voucher.
In July, Fairchild was notified her access to the collection box on Prairie Street would end for a month.
CCS held a garage sale Aug. 8 and 9.
Fairchild expected to have access to the box only to find a lock on the door.
For the time being, the Salvation Army is clearing out the collected items, according to CCS Executive Director Laura Kaufman.
"What happened was, CCS stopped having a clothes pantry," said Kaufman, who was named director in May. "That space was made into office space for our IMPACT program.
"We had the drop box out front, then the question was, what do you do with the stuff?"
For whatever reason, Kaufman admits, when space became a premium, a decision was made to give the items to Fairchild for resale at her thrift store.
"And then I started working here," Kaufman said, "and I didn't want it going to someone who did not operate a 501(c)3, I just wasn't comfortable with that."
Kaufman said the CCS staff couldn't have a yard sale every month, either. She was faced with a decision to either get rid of the collection box or make room for the items in-house.
"By the end of the month, we'll have remodeled a space with shelves for a clothing pantry," the CCS executive said.
"It's easy for me to come in new and say I wouldn't have ever let Jeanette have access to the box. It's unfortunate she feels wronged by this, mad because she won't profit anymore.
"I want to apologize to the public if they feel there was some misperception. They may want things to come here instead of the Salvation Army.
"We are bringing the clothes pantry back. Clothing will be free to the people who need it."
Kaufman said she suggested Fairchild establish a collection box in front of her business, Dating Dynamics and Massage, on Fort Wayne Street in Warsaw.
Fairchild says her regular yard sales are for charity, not for her.
"I don't have a nonprofit license, they cost $1,500. I'm not a foster parent but I take care of two kids.
"I just do things out of the goodness of my heart," she said.
Fairchild believes if donors wanted the Salvation Army to have things, they would have given them to the Salvation Army. The CCS building and collection box are a bit off the beaten path, south of Winona Avenue and east of Ind. 15 in Warsaw.
"I'm totally honest with people," she said. "I think they've just used me to clear out the box until they had their sale and made their own money on it.
"I want people to know I've been picking up the stuff and handing it out. CCS has not been doing it," Fairchild said.
"I think the community needs to know. You don't have to have a license to have a good heart."
