Back by popular demand, Habitat for Humanity Victoria is holding its grand opening this Saturday for its new ReStore location on Oak Street in Saanich.
The return to a more central location was sparked by customer feedback after the charity moved its Victoria location to Langford a few years back.
“When we moved to Langford, we found that a number of people who lived downtown didn’t feel it was close enough to them to access that service,” said Kelly King, procurement officer with Habitat for Humanity Victoria.
“We wanted to be back in downtown because people were saying, ‘If you were here, we’d love to come and use you.’”
Based on the response, Habitat for Humanity found its new 8,200-square-foot location for its latest ReStore, which sells new and used housing materials such as lumber, tools, light fixtures, windows and appliances.
Since July, the charity has been gathering donations, and the shelves are starting to fill up.
“The donation process has gone really well,” said King. “We’ve been averaging somewhere between eight and 10 donations a day, which is wonderful for a new location.”
Now they’re gearing up to officially open the ReStore with a ribbon cutting, speeches from the manager and executive directors, food and drinks, and their “Take a Seat for Habitat” silent auction, featuring a few dozen wooden chairs decorated by some artsy locals.
“We’ve given 30 local artists a plain wooden chair and asked them to redesign, upcycle, reimagine however they want what they would want to do with that piece,” said King.
“We wanted to get more involved with the arts community, and just as we were securing the new location, we had a donation of these plain chairs. Yolanda (Meijer), our executive director, looked at them and said, ‘I think we can do something really interesting with those.’”
The chairs will be available to view from Aug. 15, with bidding running until Aug. 22 at 5 p.m.
The festivities kick off Saturday at 10 a.m. at 3311H Oak St. For more information about the grand opening or to check out some of the chairs and the artists behind them, visit habitatvictoria.com.
jacob.zinn@saanichnews.com