It’s been 10 months since the Goodwill store on Pembina Highway went up in flames, and the charitable organization is finally ready to reopen its doors to the public on Thursday.
The store caught fire in late March 2019 after an SUV crashed through the front of the building. Witnesses on-scene were able to pull the driver out of the car before the blaze, but the store was destroyed.
Goodwill Industries operations manager Doug Chase told 680 CJOB he remembers the incident like it was yesterday.
“I remember the call,” he said. “I was at our Portage (Avenue) location, about to do some service work there, and somebody called me up.
“I don’t know who it was, but they were saying that a car had gone through the building and that the store was on fire.”
The smoke from the fire ended up destroying everything in the store beyond repair.
Goodwill’s interim general manager Charlotte McTavish said the 10-month closure was longer than expected, but that the support from the local community has been very encouraging.
“It’s been stressful, because it’s a loss of revenue for all that time,” she said.
“On Saturday, after our sign went up and people noticed we were working to stock the store, people were ready to shop – they were already bringing in donations.”
Canadian Goodwill Industries is a Manitoba-only charitable organization that employs people with social, mental and physical disabilities, and McTavish said she was surprised at how loyal customers of the Pembina store remained to their local staff.
“We kept the staff on, we just sent them to different store locations,” she said.
“(Customers) actually went to a lot of our other locations to see the staff members who had been working at Pembina Highway. It’s great to have that community support.”
Chase said Goodwill had to wait for “a little bit of red tape” with occupancy permits but their doors will officially open again on Thursday.
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