TEXARKANA - It all started out with hand sanitizer that Paula Forbes, owner of Crosshouse Thrift, was making herself.
She felt led by God to open her thrift store after a career in economics. Since then, she seemingly has beaten the odds and her little ship has settled into place in the thrift store community. Forbes said she has continued to seek the leading of the Lord and to find ways to serve.
And seemingly has stumbled into another.
"It all started out with hand sanitizer," she said, referring to one of the hot products of the moment because of COVID-19. "I made some and put it up for sale on social media. And it sold out swiftly. One person walked into the store and bought most of the bottles. So, I made more. It then blew up on Facebook and became a bit of a religious controversy."
But as that controversy raged on, Forbes got an idea. She began to make more of her hand sanitizer with the goal of donating it to nursing homes.
"At that point, it moved on from just hand sanitizer," she said. "I saw someone else post in another area that they were making CDC-compliant masks. And they decided to donate some to this cause (of supporting nursing homes). I was excited. Masks had been expressed as a need and now, we had a source of obtaining them."
Since then, the needed-item list has grown bigger, now including hand sanitizer, masks, games and puzzles, as well as Bible tracts and complete Bibles."
For those interested, Crosshouse Thrift is taking donations along those lines.
"If you want to donate, call us and let us know you are coming," she said. "We have a table right by the outer door for drop-offs. We are trying to help out with the social distancing guidelines. We thank everyone who does this. We are all in this together and have to help each other through this."
Crosshouse Thrift has a Facebook page and is located at 2729 New Boston Road, Texarkana, Texas. For more information, call 903-793-0057