Employee Brenda Castillo works in production folding linens at Hangers of Hope, 920 WSW Loop 323 in Tyler. Hangers of Hope is a thrift store that benefits Bethesda Health Clinic. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Brenda Castillo’s life is closely entwined with nonprofit Bethesda Health Clinic and Hangers of Hope, a thrift store that benefits the clinic.

“I’m a shopper, I go to the clinic and I work at the store … everything at once,” Castillo said.

A diabetic, Castillo started going to the clinic about three years ago upon hearing it has good doctors and provides affordable medical and dental care. “They take their time and listen to you. They go above and beyond,” she said.

Later, Castillo heard Bethesda had opened the Hangers of Hope thrift store to help support the clinic. “I thought shopping at Hangers helps me to help others.

Why not shop here,” Castillo said.

She needed a job, saw a sign saying Hangers was hiring, applied and was hired part-time in April 2016, then became full-time last December. Castillo works in the production room, where she is in charge of inspecting donated linens, shoes, handbags and accessories to determine if they are good enough quality to sell.

“I may clean and give them a little love. We keep the best stuff for customers,” Castillo said. “I encourage people to shop here and bring donations. It’s for a good cause and goes back to the community.”

On her second trip to Hangers of Hope in one week, shopper Victoria Ferguson pushed a buggy carrying decorative pillows and a scale. “You can find great deals that you wouldn’t find in other stores at a reasonable price,” she said.

Mike Martin comes to Hangars once a week mainly to buy books. “It’s a well-kept, clean store. They present everything well,” he said.

Shopper Janette Shank said, “I’m amazed at how much they have.” Her friend, Charlene Eikner, said, “They have everything you would want. The prices are right and the people that work here are very nice.”

Patterned after a Longview benefit thrift store, Bethesda opened the first Hangars store at 3500 South Broadway in late 2013 and a second store more than twice its size in January at 920 West Southwest Loop 323.

The name “Hangars of Hope,” with the motto “a thrift store on a mission,” was picked in an online contest in which anybody could suggest names and vote.

The Broadway store will continue operating until its lease expires in about 18 months, when it will close and Bethesda officials will assess whether to move it to a new location. When fully staffed, the stores have 17 employees. Three are full-time and the rest part-time.

“There has been amazing community support. The stores have exceeded expectations at every turn,” Krysti McWha, Bethesda’s chief financial officer, said.

Not counting lookers, the new store had about 3,800 customers in January, a slow month, and the Broadway store had about 1,800. McWha expects 4,500 customers during a busy month at the new store.

“Many shoppers are looking for a bargain because our prices normally are about a third of what you would pay in a retail establishment,” McWha said. For a lot of customers, it is the thrill of the hunt to dig through and find that special something, she added, while others are into the trend of repurposing things.

“We get really good donations,” McWha said. “If it isn’t the quality that we put out on the sales floor, we sell it to a salvage company which sends it to third-world countries, so nothing gets thrown away. Everything goes to help someone.”

Donors receive a receipt for their tax deductible donation.

About 40 donations are accepted per day at the Loop store of just about anything, except appliances and tires.

Both stores stock clothing for all ages and sizes for men, women and children; shoes, furniture, electronics, house wares, sporting goods, toys, jewelry, books, purses, pictures, accessories, linens, decorations, seasonable and miscellaneous items. The merchandise changes hourly as more donations come in.

McWha said, “They (the stores) have really been a good funding source for the clinic. We have been able to hire a full-time dentist with those proceeds and add a part-time gynecologist, which we would not have been able to do without the thrift stores.” The clinic is staffed with a combination of volunteer and employee physicians and dentists.

The thrift stores generate a diverse income stream that helps the clinic be more self sufficient and add programs, said John English, Bethesda’s chief executive officer. About a third of the clinic’s budget comes from revenue produced by the stores and about a third comes from low income patient fees of a nominal $15 to $20.

Bethesda depends largely on grants and community financial donations from individuals, churches and businesses to fund the clinic.