Garden Center Services Opens Resale Shop In Mount Greenwood

CHICAGO — Burbank-based Garden Center Services, which provides alternative residences, day programs and supported employment services for adults with developmental disabilities, will celebrate the grand opening of a new resale shop in Mount Greenwood.

Second Chance Thrift Shoppe, 10444 S. Kedzie Ave., Chicago, will throw open its doors on Wednesday, June 15. Guests will be treated to raffles, prizes and refreshments from 10 a.m. to noon.

“We are so thrilled to be opening our Second Chance thrift store in the Mt. Greenwood community. Since our agency, Garden Center Services, located here, everyone has been extremely welcoming and supportive,” executive director Gerry Beagles said in a news release. “We’re hopeful this new endeavor will become the avenue to making friends with many more people from the neighborhood.”

The resale shop supports Garden Center Services by raising funds for its mission of advancing lives of connection, contribution, and meaning for persons with developmental disabilities and the people that support them. The resale shop fulfills this goal by providing an amazing thrift experience for the community with quality items, in a comfortable environment, served by a friendly (and mostly volunteer) staff.

Second Chance is looking for volunteers to work short shifts to maximize the impact for people with disabilities at Garden Center Services. For more info, contact store manager, Alaina, at 773-941-4481.

Store hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Starting June 16, donations will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Garden Center first opened 2008 in Lemont, where it operated for 12 years. The social service organization closed the thrift store in 2020, with intentions to reopen closer to the area it serves, so that clients would have access to employment. Those plans were put on hold by the pandemic, but Garden Center is excited, in 2022, to finally be able to open the shop in its local community.

The organization was established in 1956 as a grassroots effort to support children with developmental disabilities and their families in the Burbank community. As those children grew, Garden Center grew with them. Today, Garden Center Services serves over 100 people, supporting them to live as independently as possible at home, to earn a living doing a job they love, and to learn skills to help each person reach their personal goals.