June’s Place

A thrift store in Reading is on a mission to give back to the Hillsdale County community.

By Elyse Apel

June’s Place Thrift Shop is a volunteer-run and mission-minded thrift shop which has been a staple in the community for the last 10 years.

“It was originally organized by the women from the Reading United Methodist Church,” says Jen Steele, current vice president of the thrift shop’s board. “We’ve since reached out into the community and take all willing volunteers.”

The thrift shop uses both its store and the proceeds from the store to give back to the community.

“We saw a need and a way to help with that need. When we opened the store, a lot of things had just happened and the community was struggling, so we were trying to find a bright and sunny way to be more positive in the community and be better neighbors to our neighbors,” she explains. “We just try to be as much of a shining light in the community as we possibly can be.”

June’s Place provides gently-used and quality clothing, goods, and other items to the community.

“You know that if you buy something at June’s, it is going to be clean, all the parts are going to be there, and it is going to work. We also keep our prices very minimal,” Jen says. “By keeping our prices low, we do a lot of volume turnover, which is how we earn the money that we earn.”

In 2023 alone, June’s Place gave $93,000 back to the local community.

“We are completely nonprofit. We keep enough money to pay our bills and keep the tax man happy, but everything else goes back out to anybody in the community that comes to us with a need,” she explains.

Jen has played an integral role in June’s Place since it was first started, over one decade ago. She says she is excited to see all the expansions the organization is currently undergoing. “We have some big projects going on within the store,” Jen says. “We are on our second expansion, so we are in the process of building on another portion of the building.”

She says it is extremely important to keep the money flowing into the community though, even as internal projects are underway. “We have worked very hard not to touch the money that we can still give out,” Jen says.

June’s Place assists everyone from local families who lost homes to house fires to teachers in need of school supplies.

“We will get you whatever we can get ourselves, but we will also help you find other resources,” she adds. “We try to help everybody in any way that we can.”

Jen says that it is important for community members to know that they can reach out when they have needs. “It’s just important that people know that we are always there for whatever they need us,” she says. “We might only be open two days a week, but you can always give us a call, and we will answer the call whenever we can.”

More volunteers are always needed at June’s Place, as Jen explains that it is run entirely by volunteers. “The biggest help that the community can be to us is being willing to volunteer,” she says.

June’s Place is located in Reading at 49 Enterprise Dr. and is open from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.