Tucked away on a tree-lined street in Vassar and housed in the original 76-year-old St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish church building, the mission store has a string of regular customers who sometimes stand in line until the doors open at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. They come from communities near and far to donate items and shop. Until the store closes at 2 p.m., it draws an average of 50 customers a day, and sometimes up to 150 on half-off days when volunteers price items to help clear the shelves.

Inside is a treasure trove of gently used, donated household items and furniture priced at a fraction of normal cost. Customers can find everything from kitchenware and dolls, seasonal decorations and craft supplies, books and blankets, collectibles and jewelry—basically everything except clothing. The mission store also provides household items on an emergency basis if people have lost everything due to fire or other circumstances.

Donations come from parishioners, community members and those who are moving or downsizing. Eyeglasses that come in are donated to the Lion’s Club. Cell phones are donated to an area organization that assists domestic violence victims. Downstairs are canes, crutches and an occasional wheelchair for those in need.

No one who works at the store earns a salary, and all the sale proceeds go to organizations that help those in need throughout the area. Some customers do not buy anything, donating money instead. Others do not accept their change.

“After expenses, it’s all donated,” said Elaine Williamson, a parish member who now helps manage the store. “People like that.”

Every six months, a small board made up of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini parishioners decides where to send money earned from sales. Since its start in 2007 to January 2025, the mission store had donated $363,635 to area organizations, including the Millington Community Center Food Pantry, the Tuscola Homeless Coalition and the Thumb Area Assault Crisis Center. Over the years, it also has helped fund the Vassar Food Pantry and the Vassar Area Emergency Fund—both of which are run by parishioners. Proceeds from the mission store also have helped fund the clothing room at the Vassar Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which supplies free clothing to those in need. Every January, the mission store board also donates money from proceeds to the church to purchase new pillows and bed linens to give away.

Since some customers cannot afford to shop anywhere but the mission store, volunteers who work the cash register sometimes tally the cost of a person’s purchases based on how much they can afford. Others simply dip into their own pockets to pay the difference so customers can buy what they need.

And there are some items—like Bibles, rosaries and crosses crocheted by a regular customer—that store volunteers simply give away.

Run by a dedicated group of about 30 volunteers, including eight board members, the mission store has grown far beyond what Kathie ever imagined when she and a fellow parishioner, the late Carol Wegrzyn, launched the store in 2007.

“It wasn’t in my mind that it was going to go on for this long,” Kathie said.

And though she still handles some paperwork and financial tracking for the store, Kathie has passed along management duties to Elaine and the other board members. As her late husband Mike began battling dementia, Kathie devoted most of her time to caregiving.

Thankfully, she said, the mission store continues to be a success because of all the hard work of dedicated volunteers from the parish.

Kathie also attributes the store’s ongoing success to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known as “Mother Cabrini,” an Italian immigrant and the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint. The foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus arrived in New York City in 1889 with a handful of other sisters after Pope Leo XIII sent them on a mission to serve Italian immigrants, orphans and the poor.

The saint had no idea where the Holy Spirit would lead the small group of sisters or how they were going to accomplish their mission in a foreign— and sometimes unwelcome— land. In a similar way, Kathie and the small group who helped start the mission store had no idea how or where the Holy Spirit would lead them. The parish priest at the time gave them the idea for the mission store, but he also made it clear that it would have to bring enough money to pay expenses. Otherwise, Kathie and the others would have to abandon the idea.

“St. Frances definitely helped us out,” Kathie said. “I feel in her spirit that this was something that she wanted to see.”

The saint’s impact on the volunteers who run the mission store is apparent. On the doorframe of the area in the back of the store where people drop off their donations is a holy card bearing the image of Mother Cabrini. To the left of the front door hangs a sign with St. Frances’ and Kathie’s favorite Scripture, Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Like Mother Cabrini, the store’s volunteers have had to step out in faith, said Priscilla Jakubczak. Priscilla, involved with the store since 2007, helps manage it with Elaine.

“There were times when we said to ourselves: What did we get ourselves into here? But [the journey] has enlightened us and made us all grow in faith,” Priscilla said.

Overseeing everything on a day in late October, Priscilla lightheartedly greeted customers and managed the flow, organization, and pricing of all the donated items coming into the store. Meanwhile her colleague, Diane Kanyok—one of the newest and youngest members of the board—reached into boxes, gingerly unwrapping donated items like little gifts.

“You never know what you’re going to find in a box,” Priscilla said, laughing.

Meanwhile, customers at the front of the store weaved their way up and down the aisles, loading up boxes near the cash register of finds to pay for and take home. Piped-in music that included an Irish jig and shelves lined with seasonal and Christmas decorations gave a festive atmosphere to the store.

With arms full of Christmas decorations to make wreaths, Alice Hunt walked up and down the aisles looking at all the new finds. The Frankenmuth resident travels to the store about twice a month to donate and buy new items. She loves the fact that her purchases go to families in need.

“It’s really a wonderful thing that they do here,” Alice said, adding she is in awe of the loyal, hardworking women who run the store.

So is Pam Ratza, who owns a resale shop in Millington and has been frequenting the store for nearly a decade. Along with the camaraderie she has developed with the volunteers who run the mission store, Pam loves the nice merchandise, “unbeatable” prices and the “super deals.”

“I spend money here all the time,” Pam said. She loves that the mission store gives everything she spends to organizations that help those in need throughout the area.

“The good we do and the number of people we help that come through … that’s my pay,” said Priscilla, who worked 38 years in a local industry shop. “I love volunteer work.”

Patricia Russell, a member of the board and volunteer since the beginning, said it’s a lot of work to keep the store going— sorting, cleaning, pricing and making sure everything they put on the shelves is in working order.

But somehow, mysteriously, the Holy Spirit has continued to supply the volunteers with the energy and donations to keep the store and its mission alive. And with each passing year, the store’s impact continues to grow.

“It’s just a circle of giving,” Patricia said, smiling. “It just keeps going around.”

St. Frances Mission Store

Open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

153 Maple St., Vassar

Learn more at stfrancescabrinivassar.org/mission-store