Discovering the Haven

We had a bunch of old clothes and shoes that we weren’t sure what to do with. The easiest thing would have been to simply toss them out, but they were perfectly usable, if not in pristine condition. The Listen Center is sometimes a little selective about what they’ll take, understandably so. They have to sell the stuff, and people don’t want things that look too much like junk, not that these looked this way. They just didn’t look brand new.

I’d heard about the Upper Valley Haven from friends, but had never been there. Unlike Listen or Good Buy, they give their stuff away, along with food and other necessitities. The prices at Listen are hard to beat, but if you are in such dire straits that you can’t even afford that, the Haven is there for you. We took a bunch of stuff, including clothes, shoes, computer stuff, and craft things.

We had to run other errands, and I realized too late that they close at 4:00. We got there and the doors were locked, bummer. There was another person dropping stuff off, and she said they have a side entrance, so we gave it a try. Sure enough, people were there and they gratefully took the stuff. I asked if they could use old Mac computers and their tech guy said he had no clue how to use Macs, which I thought was a total copout because Macs are much easier to use than PCs. Oh well, not a big deal.

In the end, I like the Haven and what they do, and would almost rather give our old stuff to them since they give it away. Then again, places like the Listen are so cheap, it’s hard to imagine that people can’t afford $2.00 for a pair of pants.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to dreamten for the pic.