Jun 05 2024
Patt Hoffman, WANE 15 anchor and long-time ReStore shopper, visited the ReStore recently to help share our mission and why the store is Positively Fort Wayne.
On a typical day, the ReStore is buzzing with activity. While two workers unload a headboard and bed frame at our convenient drive-through drop-off area, a customer is being helped inside with a kitchen cabinet, and another checks out at the register where he just bought a freezer and other items.
“What’s really special about the ReStore is you can find new and used items for your home at really competitive prices. That funding goes right into our home building program.”
Mara Kessler-Rondot
Business Development Manager
The ReStore is the place to find new and used furniture, appliances, lighting, flooring, cabinets, and more at discounted prices. Sales directly support Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fort Wayne’s efforts to provide affordable homeownership to qualified families in our community.
The mission of helping others is reinforced everywhere you look. Large banners highlight families that have directly benefited from the program and a positive energy can be felt throughout the building.
“You walk in, and everything is bright. It’s clean. Our staff is friendly. Our volunteers are friendly.”
“Habitat is such a great cause, and working here, it’s really cool to see and know the impact that you’re having.”
Chloe Didier
ReStore Associate
Kessler-Rondot says the ReStore has something for every corner of your house, and it’s not all used. “We get a lot of new things too,” she says. “We have a lot of New hardware. Lots of door locks with keys. New siding accessories and flooring. We sell new paint and supplies as well.”
Alma
At the age of 14, Alma moved to the United States with her father, leaving the rest of her family in Mexico. At 15, she began working in a factory while dreaming of one day going to college. At 17, she enrolled in high school and began learning English for the first time. After graduation, life kept Alma from college until she was 27. “I have always told God — ‘you don’t have to open a door for me, just open a little window and I will get through there!’”
In 2019, Alma’s dream of graduating college came true when she earned her nursing degree. She now works in home healthcare while raising her two children and has a new goal of becoming a homeowner.
Alma’s parents both now live in Mexico, but with her new Habitat home she’ll be able to bring them both to the United States to live with her. “It is an honor to be able to care for my parents as they get older.”
Help make a difference in Greater Fort Wayne and work in a fun, retail environment.
Shop new and used furniture, appliances, lighting, flooring, cabinets, and more at discounted prices.
The Habitat ReStore will resell your gently used household items and building materials to help build affordable homes in Greater Fort Wayne.
