The morning after a deadly blaze began in Eaton Canyon that would go on to wipe out much of Altadena, Calif., Paul Netherton stopped by Full Circle Thrift Shop to check on the Mennonite conference-owned shop he has managed for eight years.
“I drove into a neighborhood of palms on fire, so I knew pretty quickly that things were a lot worse than I thought,” he said. “I saw home after home on fire and no fire trucks at all, so I knew it was completely out of control and thought maybe the store would be on fire, too. It wasn’t, but many of the buildings around it were.”
Netherton went to work doing what he could to keep the blaze at bay. The previous night, with the power out, he had climbed to the tower atop the historic building and realized the windows had been blown open — an ideal entry point for embers being carried on fierce Santa Ana winds. He nailed the windows shut, placed wet towels under doors and then spent all day on Jan. 8 putting out any embers that touched the building and small fires in the bushes around it, using buckets of water.
“I remember thinking, if there’s anything I can do to keep the store from burning down, I’m going to stay there and do that,” he said. “The other employees and I had put eight years into building the store into what it is, and I couldn’t imagine losing it without doing everything I could to save it.”
His actions may well have saved the heritage building when so much else was lost, though the fate of its inventory — probably heavily smoke-damaged — has yet to be determined.
As Netherton kept watch, a few feet north a florist and post office were in flames. Across the street to the east, a grocery store was burning to cinders. Past the parking lot to the south, a full block of shops and bungalows and a middle school were lighting up too, one by one.
“Everything around us that could burn, did burn,” he said. “We were fortunate the roof didn’t catch fire or an ember get under the eaves or something like that.”
When he finally left around 5 p.m., the store and the small commercial strip to the west that houses the donation center still stood, surrounded by ashes — a small miracle amid so much devastation.
Full Circle Thrift is no ordinary thrift shop. First, because it’s operated as a nonprofit by Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference. And second, it’s housed in a stately 1905 brick building that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Known as Substation No. 8, it once served an electric railway in the early days of Altadena.
The two-story building, with its soaring ceiling, open wooden rafters, tall windows and mezzanine level overlooking the clothing racks, is a standout in a neighborhood built mostly of wood, stucco and concrete.
Since Full Circle Thrift moved into the long-vacant building on Lake Avenue in 2016, with donated items coming by the carload from churches across the region, it has raised thousands for PSMC projects while offering a much-loved destination for local thrift customers. It may be a second-hand store, but the staff maintain high standards for cleanliness, organization and customer friendliness, Netherton said.
“We get told a lot that the store has a good vibe, that it’s a happy place, that it feels good to be there — and that’s what we want,” he said. Just weeks ago, the store served as the location-shoot for a commercial featuring Hollywood actress Jennifer Coolidge.
Operating with four full-time and two-part time staff, as well as community volunteers who help sort goods and create attractive displays, it raised about $168,000 in net revenues last year, according to PSMC conference minister Stanley Green. Most of that is used to support work being done by PSMC congregations.
“We have a plethora of stories over the past two years of how congregations have used these resources for their missional projects,” Green said. Last year, 20 grants helped congregations provide everything from food pantries to education for people in prison to legal aid for immigrants. Some funds were devoted to PSMC’s own scholarship fund, allowing developing leaders to take part in seminary courses and other educational opportunities.
Staff and volunteers at the store are given the opportunity to devote 10% of net revenues to local charities and nonprofits of their choosing. That money has gone to a variety of social service agencies helping homeless families, immigrants, emancipated foster youth, pregnant women and mothers, and more.
“One of the distinctions of the store is the relationships we’ve built with local people,” Netherton said. “Because so many employees have been here long-term, those are long-term connections. The store has definitely become a hub.” Those relationships will be especially valuable during the cleanup and rebuilding to come.
He said it isn’t hard to find commonality between the Anabaptist values the store was founded on and those of their customers.
“Economic, social, and environmental justice — those values and themes are held by many in the local community, as they are in the Mennonite community,” he said. “Those are things where you don’t have to agree on theology or have a similar faith background. We are open about the fact that it’s a Mennonite store . . . but our purpose is to serve the local community. So, we’ve been able to find that common ground.”
When the store might reopen is a fraught question. As of Jan. 17, authorities were still not letting property owners into the area because of ongoing hazards, so staff haven’t been able to determine how the contents fared. Concern about toxic deposits from the thick smoke that blanketed the area for days make it likely the current inventory will be a total loss. The cleanup process will be long, and there are insurance issues to be sorted out between PSMC and the building’s owner.
“The conference has been very supportive of our employees,” Netherton said, adding that PSMC has “already committed to financially supporting employees during this time when they’re out of work. That really frees us from worrying about day-to-day expenses and frees us to think about how can we rebuild the store and serve this community again.”
Green says PSMC had felt forced to cut staff hours during the pandemic, but now, after two years of healthy growth and reserves, it possible to keep staff employed at current levels at least for the next two or three months, when the store’s future viability will become clearer.
“Five thousand homes and businesses were destroyed, and the community itself has suffered greatly,” Green said, citing the store’s devastated neighborhood as an example. “Those of us who are optimistic think the community will come back, but it’s clear that it will take a while, maybe a year or two, before the community is revitalized and comes together again.”
It’s not hard to see how a thrift store could play an important role in a town where so many people have lost everything.
“We are compiling a list of things we think we can do to make the store a place where people can come together to restore their hope and heal from the suffering that many have experienced,” Green said, describing the shop as an oasis. One proposal is to offer periodic gatherings with a free meal, “to bring people together to talk about what they’ve experienced and how to move forward.”
Netherton said the store can be a healing presence by simply being what it always has been.
During and after the pandemic, he recalled, “the store became important to the local community because we were open, and it was a place where they could be normal again. It was a safe space where people could get out of their homes and see one another. . . . A lot of it will be doing what we’ve always done: being open, friendly, a safe space where everybody can come and do what they’ve always done. And that’s important, because they’ve lost a lot.”
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