Second Chance Stories – Wedding Guest Needs a Suit
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Second Chance volunteer Pam Giese helps Brian Burton pick out just the right shirt and tie combination for an upcoming wedding. Giese is a regular volunteer at the store who, when asked, also gives out sartorial advice, proving once again that you can get just about everything at Second Chance.
Brian Burton needed a coat, a tie and a white shirt. There was a wedding on the horizon and his normal attire (shorts, fishing shirt, etc.) wasn’t going to do.
Burton knew where to go for a new outfit – Second Chance Emporium, the nonprofit thrift store on South Reynolds in La Grange. The store always has plenty of men’s clothes, but the problem he faced Saturday was picking out just the right combination.
Enter Pam Giese, a faithful Second Chance volunteer with an eye for fashion. Saturday afternoon, Brian brought a fistful of ties to Giese and asked which would do for a wedding.
“This one would be more like a young person,” Giese counseled.
“It’s me,” Burton responded. “I’m not young.”
And so it went, until the two arrived at the perfect combination.
Second Chance is owned and operated by a consortium of La Grange area churches. Generous people donate unneeded items to the store – everything from furniture to work boots – and all proceeds from the operation are given out to area non-profit organizations.
Second Chance makes monthly grants to AMEN, the food pantry in La Grange; Tejas Health Care; the Schulenburg Area Food Pantry; the Fayette County Prescription Drug Program; Bluebonnet Trails Community Services; Celebration House, the food pantry in Flatonia; and Combined Community Action.
The store makes special donations, too. At its most recent meeting, the Second Chance board of directors made these grants: $7,500 to Mini Horse Helpers of La Grange, to host camps where at-risk children and teens in Fayette County work with the small equines.
$20,000 to the Fayetteville Community Center Group to help with the design and construction of a community activities venue in Fayetteville.
$3,000 to Tejas Health Care, to help with the medical center’s backpack program, which provides school supplies to children through the 8th grade.
$15,000 to the Friends of the La Grange Railroad Depot, to help restore the museum’s historic caboose.
Second Chance is open every Friday and Saturday, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. When you go, you’ll likely see Brian Burton.
“We’re here every Saturday,” Burton said, holding a tie, a jacket and a nice white shirt. “I’m just not usually picking out a coat and tie.”