WINGS warehouse for donations to open Saturday

WINGS will have a warehouse available starting Saturday to collect donations of salable items.

The warehouse at 345 Eric Drive in Palatine will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily beginning Saturday, June 26. That location is north of Colfax Street and west of Plum Grove Road.

Mel Boldt, a supporter of the organization, is donating the space, said Rebecca Darr, WINGS Program Inc. executive director.

A resale shop operated by Women in Need Growing Stronger, which helps women and children who are victims of domestic violence, was destroyed by fire June 18. WINGS owns the site of the destroyed store at 756 E. Northwest Highway and might eventually rebuild there, said Darr.

The fire occurred during a storm, and the cause is still under investigation, said Palatine Fire Chief Bob Falardeau.

"We believe it to be electrical in nature," Falardeau said Wednesday. "We have yet to get a timeline as to a sequence of events. We have a lot of people who are saying what they saw, and we have video. It takes time to evaluate these things."

WINGS needs to replace the store's inventory and is looking for a space in which it can resume the sale of goods. It also hopes that some big box stores will donate store fixtures, she said. Insurance is not expected to cover the entire loss, especially the inventory, because it was donated.

Officials in the village and in Palatine Township Elementary School District 15 have been very helpful in trying to find locations for a new shop, but the sites suggested in downtown Palatine would require more money and time than the agency has, Darr said.

Darr is determined to have a temporary store open within two weeks. She has identified a spot -which she doesn't want to reveal publicly yet - and has been assured by village officials that a resale shop would be allowed there. She plans to contact the leasing agent Thursday to negotiate a donation of the space.

WINGS has two other resale shops in Schaumburg and Niles. The Palatine story grossed an average of $1,500 a day, Darr said. The revenue supports a safe house and transitional housing.

Area residents have donated about $10,000 since the fire and can continue to do so at wingsprogram.com.