Second Chance Stories: Wishes Granted

Sometimes a guy just has to have a cowhide. Ryan McCourt was that way when he arrived at Second Chance Emporium recently. And he left satisfied, finding a quite large hide hanging on the racks just inside the entrance to the non-profit second-hand store.

“I have one now,” Ryan said of a cowhide on his living room floor. “It’s a big, fluffy one,” he explained, “and it’s hard to vacuum.”

Ryan plucked a brown and white, non-fluffy hide off a very large hanger and a few minutes later it was on its way to his La Grange home.

That’s the way it is at Second Chance.You wish for the perfect something and, when you wander around the store, there it is.

Second Chance is located on South Reynolds Street in La Grange and is open every Friday and Saturday from 9 until 3. There is usually a long line outside the store on Friday mornings. On the week Ryan bought his hide, the first person in line had arrived at 3 a.m.

Second Chance is operated by seven local churches. All the goods in the store (even the hides) are donated. (Donations can be dropped off at the store during regular business hours.) And all “profits” at Second Chance are given back to local community organizations. The store makes monthly donations 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; and Combined Community Action.

The store makes special grants, too. Most recently, Second Chance made grants to these local organizations:

• The Alliance for College and Career Students at Blinn College, to provide guidance, mentoring and online credit courses, $10,000.

• Bugle Boy Foundation, to support a youth and special needs songwriting workshop for the Turtle Wing Foundation, $2,250.

• Round Top-Carmine Education Foundation, to purchase a plasma cutter for the school agriculture and FFA program, $25,000.

• Woven Ministry, to fund an Advent outreach gathering, $2,500.

• Turtle Wing Foundation, for social skills group and other programs, $12,000.

• Round Top Family Library, to purchase six iPads to be used by patrons, staff, teachers and volunteers, $6,000.

This week, Second Chance will be open only on Thursday, 9 to 3. The store will be closed the week of December 23-31, including for donations. That’s still plenty of time to find a new set of dishes, a winter coat, a wedding dress or even a cowhide for the living room floor.

Just ask Ryan.