A decade after forming on Facebook, kids charity opens resale toy shop in Arlington Heights
An Arlington Heights-based nonprofit that started a decade ago as a Facebook group connecting families who have children in therapy is celebrating its first brick-and-mortar presence: a resale toy store.
The GENEROC.I.T.Y. Toy Shop at 1423 E. Palatine Road isn’t only a place to donate gently-used toys, books, games and materials — and purchase them at a significant discount. It’s also the new community gathering spot for local charity C.I.T.Y. of Support, which stands for Children In Therapy and You.
Parents and kids filled shopping baskets with Christmas presents Wednesday night during a grand opening celebration attended by Mayor Jim Tinaglia, village trustees, school board members and other supporters. It was the culmination of C.I.T.Y. of Support founder Beth Deiter’s efforts to add another revenue source to support the nonprofit’s work, and find a permanent multi-purpose space for its growing number of programs.
“We started online. We know that a lot of these families don’t leave their homes or can’t leave their homes because their child has medical issues or sensory issues or behavior issues. Online has been a wonderful way for families to connect,” said Deiter, a pediatric speech-language pathologist by trade.
“But there’s become a growing need to say, ‘Well, we want to get in person also. We want to meet face to face. I’d love to have a play group. I’d love to have a parent group,’” she added. “We’ve always had to rent space or find a solution at a library. So this is so exciting that we have this space.”
The store joins a cadre of resale shops in the area, including Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Home of the Sparrow’s Community Threads. Inspired by those resale shops on Rand Road, Deiter met with fellow nonprofit leaders to learn more about how donations and reselling could yield a new stream of revenue, and perhaps allow the organization not to be as reliant on fundraisers.
A year ago, C.I.T.Y. of Support opened the doors of a pop-up toy shop in the Annex of Arlington shopping center on Rand Road to get a feel for how it would work. The pilot project eventually led Deiter to ink a three-year lease for two storefront spaces at the Pal-Win Plaza about a mile away.
Half of the GENEROC.I.T.Y. Toy Shop is the retail store and half contains programming rooms. That’s where the organization can host parent meetups and support groups, educational sessions, author meet and greets, discounted therapeutic enrichment classes, and free story times, therapy dog visits and respite care for families with children in therapy.
The toy shop is primarily staffed by volunteers, including a number of high schoolers, who go through the donations and stock them on the shelves. Items include books, games, puzzles, play sets and dolls (everything from Our Generation to Transformers). Prices are often half to three-quarters of what you’d pay for new items.
Deiter, who serves as C.I.T.Y.’s board chair and only employee, also buys some wholesale products specifically intended for families with kids in therapy — like chewy tubes and sensory body socks — but aren’t commonly available in big box stores. There are also books on the shelves with characters representing children with disabilities.
“One of the concerns when we were thinking about this was, ‘Is a brick-and-mortar store a good idea?’ You know, a lot of things are going online and everything. But I think that resale shops — there’s something to it,” Deiter said. “The new generation doesn’t like to waste anything. We want to see things going back in circulation. You want to come back here all the time because there’s always new things.”
Hours are from 2 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The shop accepts toy donations — but no stuffed animals or clothing — during business hours.