Pulaski County Free Store welcomes community to new location

DUBLIN, Va. (WDBJ) - The door opening dinged dozens of times when the Pulaski County Free Store opened to the public Sunday. Its Founders, Sabrina Davidson-Ratcliffe and Hazel Wines, have been working toward making this idea come to life for years.

“Sabrina and I got in contact through some mutual friends a couple years ago as acquaintances, and ended up doing a lot of talking about how we could help the community, and we’ve thrown around a lot of ideas over the years, but we really kept landing on the free store.”

It all became a reality in August when the Pulaski County Free Store opened in a storage unit, but now it has moved into its new space. The name of the store is not a play on words; everything from room to room is free.

“Everything is free, there are no prices. Because we think there’s enough to go around.”

The store is also focused on making sure donated items don’t end up in a landfill. Everything in the store is donated, and they plan on getting it out to those in need. All they ask in return is that visitors sign in when they go in the store. Although there are some games and fun pieces of equipment, the founders know a lot of these items are are a necessity for some in the community.

“If you don’t need those, you’re not going to walk into the free store and go, “Oh, I’m gonna take this toothpaste,” but if it’s a need for you, you’re going to see that and it’s going to make a big difference. So it’s really important to us that we are protecting the environment and keeping people’s lives in dignity as much as possible. They deserve to have their basic needs met.”

The store is entirely volunteer-run and it is open the first and third Sunday of each month, but there are plans to expand those days and hours.

The Pulaski County Free Store is at 260 W. Main St. in Dublin. For more information, email the store at freestorepc@gmail.com.

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