Last week we had the good fortune to receive a visit from Melissa at Swap.com! We hit up the Mill Creek Goodwill store and spent a few hours putting together several (ok lots!) of outfits for their weekly #ThankGoodwillItsFriday feature on The Swapaholics blog. It was so much fun and we hope to have them back soon!

Thank Goodwill It’s Friday! with Swap.com

Thank Goodwill It’s Friday (#ThankGoodwillItsFriday, or TGIF) is a fun little weekly Twitter and blog party that started a few years ago on Shoestring, when me and the other contributors (including my partner in all things Swapaholic, Amy of PunkyStyle.com) decided it would be super fun to share our love for thrifting and our “Goodwill Hunting” scores each week, and to ask our readers to do the same.

Now, as part of Swap.com, our love affair and partnership with Goodwill has grown, and we’ve been fortunate to have worked with Goodwill in more than a dozen cities around the country for our clothing swaps (in 2011, we donated more than 10 tons of clothing and accessories alone!) and to be invited to “guest style” for the Clothing Collaborative and volunteer for other events at Goodwill in Boston.

I was beyond thrilled last week to be able to take Thank Goodwill It’s Friday on the road and head north to Portland for a little styling challenge and “swap talk” with your very own Michelle of Goodwill NNE! After about two hours, two overflowing carts, and about 2,897 laughs, we came up with all these great takes on current trends fresh from the NYFW runways — sheer dresses, floral and candy colored denim, just to name a few! — plus one totally inspired by the spring-like weather and daydreams of Maine beach days to come.

In the end, I scored HUGE, filling two whole bags to the brim for just $55!

But, the big question is: which piece or look is your favorite? Check out the full gallery of photos on Picasa, and if you’re on Twitter or Facebook, share YOUR best thrift score with us today and every Friday — just tag us in the photo, leave us a comment detailing your favorite find, or use the hashtag #ThankGoodwillItsFriday on Twitter. Happy Goodwill hunting!

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Please excuse our month-long absence – were were busy getting ready for the Grand Opening of our Buy the Pound Warehouse Outlet in Gorham, Maine (pssst, if you haven’t been yet, check it out!).

We are excited to share a new post today from Joanne Palmisano, author of Salvage Secrets and SalvageSecretsBlog.com. She was assisted by Nora Moore. They share some tips on how to repurpose a thrifted tray into a beautiful, usable piece that can be used around the house in countless ways. What thrifted finds have you repurposed lately?

Trendy Trays

Materials:

• Recycled tray
• Fabric/decorative paper
• Scissors
• Glue sticks
• Glue gun
• Ribbon
• Shellac
• Optional: Decorative item for corners

I have misplaced the TV remote one too many times to realize that I need to keep it some place where it won’t be lost. On my last visit to the Williston, VT Goodwill store, I spotted a used wooden tray that I knew I could “glam up” and use, not only for my remote; but for my drinks and snacks as well.

There are so many uses for a tray like this — display on a dresser to hold jewelry, make- up or perfume, bring as a hostess gift to a party (with my hor d’ourves on top), set in the kitchen for mail, keys and loose change, or as a centerpiece on the dining room table with potted plants or flowers  – the sky is the limit! For under $5, you can purchase a mug, a plate and a tray from Goodwill to make a perfect “get well soon” gift for a friend. Follow these easy step-by-step instructions to make your own fabulous tray.

Instructions:

1. Choose any size tray from your local Goodwill store.

2. Pick fabric or decorative paper to line the inside and lay the fabric or materials upside down on top of tray.

3. With a black marker, mark the perimeter of the back of the fabric along the edge of the tray.

4. Cut along the marked lines of the fabric.

5. Glue the edges of the fabric onto the tray with a glue gun.

6. Use decorative ribbon or rope along the edges of the tray.

7. Seal with spray shellac. (One or two coats)

8. Add decorative flowers or beads to corners.

How would you use a repurposed tray? To hold jewelry? Mail? As a centerpiece?

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GORHAM — Goodwill Industries of Northern New England opened its new Buy the Pound Outlet in Gorham today.

The outlet offers customers deeply discounted merchandise that did not sell in its retail stores. Prices are determined by the weight of the goods purchased.

Goodwill hopes the arrangement will reduce the amount of materials that end up in the waste stream.

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First lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited campus December 12, 1942, at the invitation of students as part of the Delta Upsilon lecture series.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, granddaughter of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, was a guest speaker in former Governor Angus King’s Leaders and Leadership class.

“Part of what I try to convey in this class is that leaders are real people, and that we learn more from their experiences than from dry treatises,” says King, Bowdoin’s Distinguished Lecturer.

“We had the extraordinary opportunity of bringing one of those leaders to life, when Anna Eleanor Roosevelt joined the class to share personal reminiscences and insights about her famous grandmother.”

Roosevelt, the new CEO of Portland-based Goodwill Industries of Northern New England and formerly an executive at Boeing, spoke for about a half hour before taking questions from King’s class.

Listen to an interrview with Roosevelt on the MPBN program Maine Calling.

Read the Portland Press Herald profile.

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GORHAM, Maine — Goodwill is planning to open a new warehouse in the town of Gorham.The Buy-The-Pound warehouse outlet will offer at least 50 percent off of Goodwill’s already discounted items.Goodwill said the items are ones that haven’t sold at their retail stores and is one last effort to sell the items before they are recycled or thrown away.Everything at the warehouse is priced based on how much it weighs.”For example, in our regular retail stores, a pair of boots like this, great condition, would be about $5. Here at the outlet store, if we weigh them, they weigh about one-and-a-half pounds and so you can get that for about $2 here.”The warehouse is located in the Gorham Industrial Park, and will open to the public on Feb. 16 at 9 a.m

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courtesy of Portland Press Herald

Goodwill Industries of Northern New England invited the media to take a peek Wednesday at its new warehouse and Buy the Pound Outlet at 34 Hutcherson Drive in Gorham’s Industrial Park.

The outlet, which is set to open Feb. 16, will offer consumers deeply discounted merchandise that did not sell in its retail stores.

The goods will be displayed on tables or shelves, and prices will be determined by the weight of merchandise purchased.

Goodwill hopes the arrangement will reduce the amount of materials that end up in the waste stream.

courtesy of Portland Press Herald

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photo courtesy of Bangor Daily News

GORHAM, Maine — Goodwill Industries of Northern New England will soon open its new Buy-the-Pound outlet in Gorham. The store is like the island of misfit toys, the last stop for merchandise gathered from stores around northern New England.

All the merchandise will be sold by the pound.

A cart stuffed with 50 pounds of clothes, accessories, housewares, toys and shoes, at 79 cents per pound, say, would cost a shopper $39.50.

The less you buy, though, the higher the per-pound prices. Those buying between a half pound and 10 pounds of used, donated and refurbished items will be charged $1.49 per pound, for instance.

Movies and music? Records and CDs will cost $1 per pound and DVDs will cost $2 per pound. Paperback books will be 25 cents each pound, hardcovers will be double that, as will video and cassette tapes.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, president of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England, said the uncommon pricing system — at least outside of fruit stands and butcher shops — is meant to give the goods one last chance at being bought before sorted for recycling.

“It’s kind of catchy. We hope it’ll be a big success,” Roosevelt, granddaughter of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, told the Bangor Daily News Wednesday.

The Buy-the-Pound outlet store is located in a walled-off 6,500-square-foot section of the organization’s new 106,000-square-foot warehouse in the Gorham Industrial Park, and it will sell products that went unsold at the 26 Goodwill retail stores in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The outlet is scheduled to open to the public at 9 a.m. on Feb. 16.

Roosevelt said she expects bargain hunters and resellers alike to frequent the store, and that the organization hopes to get revenue — even if just a little per pound — from goods that overstayed their welcome on retail sales floors and in the past were just junked in recycling bins.

Behind the walls partitioning the outlet from the rest of the warehouse, groups of workers sort donations for distribution to northern New England retail stores, cut up old unsold articles of clothing to be sold as rags to car washes and kitchens and separate cardboard, plastic and other recyclable packages and office materials.

The facility, which Goodwill moved into during the fall, dwarfs the organization’s previous 44,000-square-foot Diamond Street warehouse. The extra space allows the group to consolidate and more accurately track inventory, said Goodwill Industries of Northern New England Operations Director Robert Frederick, as well as more thoroughly sort recyclable materials.

“When I first saw this facility, I was amazed at how many ways this organization takes a single item and makes sure it’s used and used and used and doesn’t end up on the scrap heap,” Roosevelt said.

The organization president said the group employs 1,800 people in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, with between 1,200 and 1,300 of those workers based in Maine. She said Goodwill prides itself on offering employees professional training that will help them move on to bigger and better things, and has positioned itself as a transitional employer for people looking to break back into the workplace.

“Our founder, Edgar Helms, lived 100 years ago, but his thoughts were very contemporary,” Roosevelt said. “He felt nothing should go to waste, not a shirt, not a shoe, not a person.”

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February 7, 2012 You may know it best as a place to drop off old clothes and no longer needed household items, but Goodwill is much more than a thrift store. The new CEO of Goodwill Industries of Northern New England discussed the challenges facing her organization, and the community support services it provides to tens of thousands of individuals. (43:52) Host Jonathan P. Smith speaks with: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Chief Executive Officer, Goodwill Industries of Northern New England Goodwill Industries of Northern New England website

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Feature on Goodwill’s SCSEP program.

They’re known as the golden years, a time to sit back and relax after years of punching the clock.

But thanks to today’s shaky economy and rising health care costs, many are re-thinking their retirement plans.

A recent study shows fewer seniors are planning to retire at the age of 66, and they cite the financial crisis as the number one reason why.

Joy Hollowell has part one of a special report on Delaying Retirement.

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Each week, Mike Johnson teaches a Computer Boot Camp at the Career Center in Bangor.

“Now, you type in whatever it is that you want to type in,” he tells a student.

Johnson is 65, an age when folks typically think about retiring.

“Would that I could,” Johnson says with a laugh.

Timing early on his career played a big role in retirement plans.

“At one point, I was planning to, but I had a 32 year career with Delta Airlines,” explains Johnson. “But then Delta left.”

Johnson had four kids in college at the time and realized he couldn’t hang up his hat just yet.

“I didn’t just jump into a real good job,” says Johnson. “It was apply, get rejected and it’s like, how can this be happening?”

Some of Johnson’s students are in similar situations. They find themselves back in the job market, concerned that retirement just isn’t something they can afford right now.

“There are people that were all set to retire, that had that put aside and now find that they don’t have enough in their account,” says Ed Upham, the Career Center Manager. “And there are other people who didn’t have anything put aside and just find that there is not enough or they cannot live on the small income that they have from social security.”

Upham says he’s seen an increase in older folks coming in the last few years, and he can relate to their pain.

“When you get close to retirement, you’ve been looking forward to this for several years and then you find out that you can’t. And that is a bit of emotional turmoil,” says Upham. “I’m looking forward to retiring and now I’m having second thoughts about it and thinking I may not be able to retire as early as I wanted to.”

73-year old Nancy Verrill works part time at the Goodwill store in Bangor.

“I take the older clothes that haven’t been sold, and I bring them out and they put out new reductions, new ones,” explains Verrill.

Verrill was hired through the Senior Community Service Employment Program.

“To be eligible, you need to be 55 or older, low income, generally have a barrier to employment,” says Barry Peaco, worker program manager for Goodwill Industries on Northern New England.

Goodwill has been participating in the employment program for more than seven years now. In that time, Peaco has seen larger numbers of applicants. so much so that “we do have a waiting list.”

Verrill admits she pictured herself retired by this time in her life.

“It would be nice,” says Verrill, “but I need the extra money and I like working with people a lot. And so it helps with the bills, with the economy, the rent is high, food is high, gas.”

And Verrill knows, she’s not alone.

“My boss was 83 before she retired. And she kept right on working, nice lady,” says Verrill with a smile.
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The Tri-County Career Center in Bangor has a number of programs and services specifically geared toward seniors, and they’re free.

For more information, log onto www.mainecareercenter.com

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