Resale store gives $25,000 to local high school

During Monday evening's Calvary's Gift meeting and volunteer dinner at Calvary Lutheran High School, Alice Simmons, left, and Linda Brenner shared memories as they looked through a scrapbook from their years of volunteering at the gift shop. Simmons started at the shop when it opened in 2009 and worked with Brenner, each of whom have about been volunteering for five years.
During Monday evening's Calvary's Gift meeting and volunteer dinner at Calvary Lutheran High School, Alice Simmons, left, and Linda Brenner shared memories as they looked through a scrapbook from their years of volunteering at the gift shop. Simmons started at the shop when it opened in 2009 and worked with Brenner, each of whom have about been volunteering for five years.

Calvary's Gift resale store last week gave $25,000 to Calvary Lutheran High School, which brought the total amount of money given by the store to the school for tuition assistance to $1 million.

"This ministry that Calvary's Gift has really does have an impact here and allows for more students to be able to attend Calvary than would be possible without what they do," CLHS Executive Director John Christman said.

Calvary's Gift was founded in 2009 to provide tuition assistance to Calvary Lutheran students.

"It's far exceeded anything we dreamed of," Becky Engelbrecht said. Christman credited Engelbrecht with having the original idea for Calvary's Gift.

She said the volunteer-run store never really had a goal in mind for how much they wanted to raise for tuition assistance.

By the end of 2010, the store had given CLHS $31,800. The store gave $140,500 in 2015 - the first year of a six-figure annual total of monetary donations to the school - and last year gave the school $234,550.

Engelbrecht said it's difficult to believe how well the store has done, and so soon. "God blessed us from the very beginning" with people willing to donate and volunteer, she added.

The store takes donations of and sells a variety of secondhand household goods, including kitchenware, clothing, dishes and books.

Calvary Lutheran's tuition is $6,900 per student, and Christman said 62 or 63 students last year and 62 students in 2016 received assistance from Calvary's Gift monies - about half the student body.

The school receives significant support from donors and fundraisers. Tuition covers less than 70 percent of the costs to educate each student, and Christman said last year the school had 24 percent of its total costs covered by donors and fundraising events such as a dinner auction and golf tournament.

Calvary's Gift is located at 722 Jefferson St. in Jefferson City and is open 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The store is open until 6 p.m. Thursdays, according to its Facebook page.