Second Chance Stories
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Wendy Wallace has a horse (Big Red) that enjoys looking at himself in a hand-held mirror. She thought her equine friend might get a kick out of a full-size version, which she found at Second Chance Emporium on South Reynolds Street in La Grange. Second Chance is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. Photo by Bill Bishop
Wendy Wallace noticed something about her horse, Big Red. “He seemed to like looking at himself in a handheld mirror,” Wallace said.
If a small mirror was interesting to Big Red, Wallace wondered what her horse would find in a full-size looking glass. She drove from her place outside La Grange to the Second Chance Emporium, the natural place to find a horse mirror, or just about anything else.
Second Chance is on South Reynolds in La Grange. The non-profit store is run by a group of local churches and sells second hand donations brought in by people from all across Central Texas.
Wendy Wallace learned about Second Chance after moving to Fayette County a few years ago from Leander, an Austin suburb. “We wanted land,” she said. “We were tired of the HOV world.” (HOV is interstate talk for high occupancy vehicle.)
With land, she adopted a rescue horse (Big Red) and although she didn’t know about Second Chance when she moved here, she soon learned that the Emporium was the place to go for just about everything a person (or horse) might need.
She found a mirror for Big Red in no time.
Proceeds from sales of clothing, cookware, western novels, shoes and an equine looking glass at Second Chance go back to local nonprofit groups. In May, Second Chance made these grants: $1,300 to American Le-gion Post No. 143 to provide flags on Memorial Day for over 1,100 graves at various cemeteries in and around Schulenburg.
$25,000 to the Flatonia ISD Education Foundation to help teachers buy products and programs outside the annual school budget.
$9,000 to the Round Top Family Library to purchase video conference equipment and to add a deck to the Children’s Ag Building.
$4,500 to the Stanzel Family Foundation for Parents as Teachers. The grant will support the addition of 25 families to the PAT program, which teaches new parents the skills they need to promote healthy childhood development.
$6,000 to the Fayette County Community Theatre to buy a storage container for sets and lighting equipment.
$6,000 to the Alliance for College and Career Student Success at Blinn College to aid Fayette County students who need support to complete post-secondary degrees or workforce programs.
The Second Chance board also doubled the scholarship money given to each school district in the county, for a total of $31,000.
Finding mirrors is just a little of what Wendy Wallace is up to. She’s recreated the fantasyland Narnia in an old armoire. (You have to see it to believe it.) And she’s put in a garden that is only missing live hobbits.