Giveaway House up and running

After a hiatus of more than a year while a custody battle worked through the courts, a decades-old Havre charity is back in operation.

The Community Giveaway House reopened last week at its North Havre location to the delight of former patrons

"I am extremely happy it's open," said Teena Thompson right after signing into the visitor list Tuesday morning.

The initial hours for the charity, located at 1058 2nd St. North in North Havre, are from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and the third Saturday of each month.

Board member Jim Howendobler said Tuesday that last Saturday, with no advertising or announcement, the charity saw more than 20 people come through the doors.

The other board members are Darlene Ophus, Mary Ann Moog, Carol Forshee and Kelly Damson.

Howendobler and others were sorting and displaying items and cleaning up and reorganizing the location, deeded over to the corporation at its founding by one of the charity's founders and her husband.

The board members and volunteers said the charity is looking for help - monetary donations, racks and fixtures, primarily - to get it up and running and, hopefully, expand its hours.

The charity is not yet distributing food, although the workers said they hope to restore that.

Patrons were coming in shortly after the Giveaway House opened at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Pauline Eustis of Chinook said she was glad the charity had reopened, adding that she and her sister used to come to the Giveaway House regularly before her sister moved out of the area.

"She said it really helped out," Eustis said.

The charity was created in the early 1970s by local residents Ruth Nystrom and Anne Friesen, collecting donations ranging from food and clothes to furniture, and distributing the items to whoever needed them. In 1989, they incorporated the charity as a nonprofit corporation, and Nystrom and her husband, Karl, gave the house in which it had operated to Giveaway House Inc. on the contingency it continued to operate as a nonprofit charity.

The charity shut down in January 2013, after legal wrangling erupted between factions on the board.

Havre attorney Stephen Brown mediated a meeting in November, the new board was formed, settling the dispute out of court.

Bernice Campbell, as she worked to sort and organize items, said she has been involved with the charity for decades. She started coming to the Giveaway House when her son - now 43 - was a small child and began volunteering some 10 years ago or more after both of her sons moved out.

Items are needed to replace fixtures and furnitures lost during the hiatus, including a freezer, bookcases, clothes racks and displays and dressers, and monetary donations to help pay the bills.

Markley, who was helping with the sorting and cleaning, said a key to getting the charity back to full strength will be finding people to help with fundraising.

She said a longterm goal also is to find funding to move the charity - last year she was investigating Giveaway House buying the old Salvation Army building on the 600 Block of 2nd Street, but could not find the funds.

"We need a bigger place," Howendobler added.

Volunteer Paula Case, staffing the welcome desk and sign-in sheet, said it has been nice to see the people coming in - many of whom she has come to know well.

People from up and down the Hi-Line and around the Golden Triangle come to the charity, she said, adding that one patron brings friends and relatives from Canada.

Thompson said that when she moved to Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation from Washington State Giveaway House helped her put her new house together.

She said she brings her grandmother from Washington in to browse the store when she is visiting.

"She calls it the fantastic free store," Thompson said.

For more information, people can call 399-1604 or 945-2869.