By DAVID KRIER
Visitors to Boscobel’s InHealth Community Thrift Shop on Highway 61 will now be welcomed by a new manager and a new look following a major renovation effort last week.
“We’re re-launching with a new look, a cleaner look and hoping to help out the free clinic, which is struggling right now,” says new manager Cheryl Davis. “We’re still going to accept gently used items, but we’re moving to a higher standard.”
To kick things off, Davis is holding a big outdoor clothing sale Wednesday through Friday of this week in the thrift store’s parking lot at 605 Elm St. next to Krachey’s BP. The store also had new hours, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday’s from 10-1.
The Thrift Shop’s main mission to offer financial assistance to the InHealth Community Wellness Clinic, a free clinic that has already had over 11,000 patient visits so far this year, about half from Grant County and half from Crawford County.
“The free clinic is in a dire financial situation,” says volunteer bookkeeper Lois Knoble. “We’ve lost many of our big financial backers and if we are to continue the thrift shop needs to be successful.”
In addition to providing medical services to the uninsured and under-insured of Grant and Crawford counties, the free clinic also runs a Teeth-for-Life program in 18 area schools, with children on Badgercare or with no insurance receiving two hygienist contacts each school year. The InHealth Adult Dental program provides extractions, restorations and dentures for low income private pay and Medicaid patients.