On Jan. 17, we marked a special occasion: the 20th anniversary of our ReStore South!
We celebrated with festive balloon arches, cake for staff and volunteers — and a 20-day sale that runs through Feb. 5! Customers can receive 20% off a single item (including new/purchased product with orange tags, but excluding bulk and bundle purchases) per visit.
We also hosted a meet-and-greet with Miranda, a future Pikes Peak Habitat homeowner. She told a reporter from KOAA News5 that without Pikes Peak Habitat’s program, homeownership for her — a single mom with a full-time job — would be impossible in this market.
Her story underscores the importance of the ReStore’s mission.
The store launched in 2004 to serve El Paso County by providing a place where community members could donate unwanted, usable construction supplies, home goods, furniture, and other items. Proceeds would then fund the construction of Pikes Peak Habitat homes built in partnership with local workforce families.
The ReStore opened at 411 S. Wahsatch Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Although the address has remained the same for 20 years, the store itself has expanded–first throughout the building and now over the entire lot!
The store initially occupied a 10,000-foot-square space at the front of the building. Barry Mullane, who has volunteered at the ReStore since it opened, points to the garage where people now pick up large purchases. “About twice the size of that is what they started with!” he says. “It was walled off, and there was other stuff in this building.”
Another longtime volunteer, Suzanne Ballard, says she remembers when the donation receiving area was on the main floor — where offices are now. “Right outside of there is where I had a little station where I put together doorknobs,” she recalls. “The doorknobs I did have went all the way up front on a rack, and that’s all there was. So it’s grown and grown and grown!”
Not only has the ReStore gradually filled its building — as well as an adjacent outdoor sales lot and a large storage area — but in 2021, it expanded into a second location, this one at 6250 Tutt Blvd. in northeastern Colorado Springs (80923). And in spring of 2023, an online eBay storefront launched to showcase fragile, vintage, and collectible items. Customers can opt to pick up their purchases locally or have them shipped.
All of this ReStore growth and expansion fulfills a very specific purpose: providing funding to increase the number of workforce families who can partner with Pikes Peak Habitat to help build and purchase affordable homes. Since its opening, the ReStore has contributed to the construction of 128 homes in El Paso County.
“Every piece of merchandise that you pick up in the store affects at minimum three lives,” says Toby Drury, Pikes Peak Habitat Director of ReStores. “The donor clears clutter from their homes, which lets them breathe easy. The customer gets quality merchandise at a far reduced price that allows their limited budget to go further, and all the proceeds that come out of these stores assist someone in getting into a home.”
Read more about the ReStore South’s anniversary in our winter print newsletter — at press now!
You can see miniature versions of some of these homes displayed in the glass cases at the ReStore South’s checkout area. These homes are the work of Mary Banner, a talented miniaturist who has volunteered at the ReStore for years. She began with the very first home built fully through ReStore proceeds, and she has replicated the design and colors of Pikes Peak Habitat homes built throughout the years and scattered around El Paso County.
Staff and volunteers at the ReStore Northeast (below, left) and the ReStore South (right) celebrate the store’s anniversary with cake and sparkling champagne!
