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Second Chance Stories

Birthday Embarrassment and Donations Brought to You by Local Resale Shop

Hailey Kelly (left) has a birthday coming up on October 2. Mom Cindy Kelly found the perfect sign for the occasion at Second Chance Emporium last week. This month, among other donations, Second Chance gave a $12,700 grant to Schulenburg/Weimar Area Parents as Teachers, which will allow the group of serve 50 additional families.

The sign telling passing motorists to honk on her daughter’s birthday cost Cindy Kelly only a buck or two. And the chance to embarrass her daughter Hailey amounted to nothing at all.

The good-hearted and always-laughing mother/daughter duo were in Second Chance Emporium last week shopping when Cindy saw the birthday sign: “Honk! It’s My Birthday.” Since Hailey’s birthday is coming up Oct. 2, she figured it was the perfect thing to buy.

“We’re going to put it in the yard,” she announced. Her plan elicited a lot of eye-rolling from Hailey, who claimed her mom was out to embarrass her.

The Kellys live on Scherrer St. in La Grange and Hailey is a nursing student at Blinn College. (Now you know where to go on Oct. 2.) They come to the non-profit store on South Reynolds most weeks to find clothes, knick-knacks, stuff for the kitchen and, sometimes, embarrassing signs.

Second Chance is operated by local churches and all “profits” are donated to local social service agencies. Second Chance makes monthly donations to AMEN (the La Grange food pantry), Tejas Health Care, the Schulenburg Area Food Pantry, Fayette County Prescription Drug Program, Bluebonnet Trails Community Services and Combined Community Action.

The store also makes special grants. This month, the store made these donations:

• $12,700 to the Schulenburg/Weimar Area Parents as Teachers, to help the group include fifty more families in its program. PAT works with parents who have pre-school children. (This grant is being routed through the Stanzel Foundation.)

• $7,500 to the Deputy Santa program, operated by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. Deputy Santa buys Christmas gifts for children.

• $2,000 to the Turtle Wing Foundation to pay for a songwriting workshop at And Then… a New Day in Schulenburg. And Then operates programs for young adults with special needs.

Second Chance runs on the generosity of those who donate things for resale when the shop opens on Fridays and Saturdays. So, bring by your donations to the shop on South Reynolds in La Grange.

And if you have something that might embarrass somebody’s daughter, that would be excellent.