People often talk about how they really want to help nonprofit organizations especially those that serve our communities, but more often than not the talk doesn’t translate into action.

This is not the case with the Our House Domestic Violence Program with the gracious giving of materials, time, money, and labor, several businesses came together to give Our House Thrift store located on Main Street in Cedartown new life in recent days.

Our House Thrift Store’s proceeds go to the Our House Domestic Violence Shelter. The thrift store, with a staff of 4 employees and as many volunteers as possible, has been in existence since 2002. Before the thrift store, several buildings operated in the space, including Belk’s for 39 years and at one time, JC Penney’s (based on information available immediately.)

For the past several decades, the flooring has been a mixture of old tile and dingy, smelly carpet, much of it left from the time when Belks occupied the space.

Of note, one can still see the pressed tin tiles on the roof of the store that are original to the historic downtown building.

However, a change was needed and brought about thanks to generous help from members of the community willing to give back to Our House and help the Thrift Store look its best.

During the week of July 4th, Jose Lara of Lara Construction replaced the old flooring with new beautiful faux wood flooring. It definitely took a village for this project to be completed.

Additional thanks to Jeff Dingler and Richie Haney, of LiveWire Surplus, who donated all of the flooring materials to the thrift store. Mark Sullins donated the use of one of his warehouses to store all flooring materials until the flooring could be installed.

Mason Gore donated the use of his bobcat to move the materials and City Manager Edward Guzman and Sheriff Johnny Moates allowed their work detail to move all of the furniture and clothing items so Lara could easily install the flooring.

What a difference the renovation made in the Thrift Store, which was shown off during the August meeting for the Our House Women’s Shelter board earlier this month.