Help charities by shopping at Milford’s Consigning for Good

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Michael Cleveland photo Linda Cataldo of Consigning for Good in Milford with some of the Christmas items available to last-minute shoppers.

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MILFORD – At this time of year, we often hear that it’s better to give than to receive.

If that is indeed the case, then last-minute Christmas shoppers have an opportunity to do it twice at a South Street shop called Consigning for Good, which, its owners say, has lots of gifts and stocking stuffers available.

So not only can shoppers find something for someone, but each time they buy something from the “donation” side of the store, the owners split the money with one of the 70 charities they support.

“Every time I give a check out, the charities are very happy,” said Linda Cataldo, who, with Joan Dargie, owns the shop near the railroad tracks. “It’s another source of revenue for them, and we’re giving out a lot of checks every month.”

For instance, Dargie estimated that Milford’s SHARE organization gets a check each month for somewhere between $50 and $150, and the Animal Rescue League of Bedford has gotten about $4,000 so far.

The shop will be open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 23, and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 24.

“We have a lot of stocking stuffer items, and we’re putting out more every day,” Cataldo said.

The shop also is selling blankets for Dollars for Scholars, which will get all of the money.

Dargie said the partners came up with the idea for the shop more than two years ago because they were spending so much time doing fundraising for such things as the Boy Scouts. Knowing how many organizations needed help with funding, they thought it would be a good idea to try to help from under one room.

“Everybody has something that’s sitting around the house that they don’t need anymore that they could donate,” Dargie said.

She also recalled getting items for Boy Scout yard sales that were worth far more than could be gotten at such sales and figured that was a way to raise even more money for local organizations: sell things for more.

This is how it works: A person brings in an item, and rather than put it on consignment – the shop also does what people normally think of consignment shops as doing – they agree to donate it with the money for which it’s sold split between the shop and the charity the donator chooses. Because of state law, it has to be a charity with which Consigning for Good already has an agreement.

“The charity has to be aware” that donations are being accepted in its name, Dargie said, “so we sign the charities up in advance.”

When a donation is brought in, Cataldo and Dargie make sure it’s in good shape.

“We verify that it works. We clean it up or sort through it,” Dargie said. “We always tell people that if we can’t use it in the shop, we’ll donate it. So whenever a group is having a yard sale, we’ll donate to them. The Brookline Boy Scout troop was having a yard sale one weekend, and they came by and took whatever we had on the porch.”

The shop is loaded with items running from household goods to sporting goods, but there is often a special use for things such as dishes, glassware and silverware.

“We store that in the basement,” Dargie said, “then when welfare or SHARE or Bridges has a family that is going from homeless to getting an apartment, we put a box of stuff together for them, and that saves (the organization) from having to buy those items.”

For last-minute Christmas shoppers, Dargie said, the shop has lots of collectables and antiques.

“If someone’s looking for an old Mason canning jar, the late 1900s, you can find that,” she said.

And she mentioned one family that donated some Pabste Blue Ribbon collectables and some paraphernalia from the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

While they hope someday to be able to make a good profit – Dargie laughs when she says “We’re volunteers right now” – or perhaps going nonprofit, it isn’t as if they’re getting nothing out of it: There’s a great deal of satisfaction.

“I think it’s a great way for people who are looking to fundraise to do it all year long,” she said.

For Cataldo, she likes getting the feedback.

“People say, ‘I’m glad you’re here,’” she said.

For more information and a list of charities supported by the shop, go to www.consigningforgood.com, or call 249-9481.