A new thrift store opening Oct. 7 in McKees Rocks should be a boon to people who shop there and the organization that will operate it.

Clothes, furniture, dolls, teddy bears and more will be sold there thanks to people who donated items. Proceeds will benefit Focus On Renewal, a private, nonprofit, community service agency that has provided social services in the Sto-Rox area for more than 40 years.

"We asked for donations, and the community has donated so much. The whole thing is so magical. A man in West Virginia has donated thousands of dollars worth of baby dolls and teddy bears" from a family collection, said Margie Rose of Windgap.

Ms. Rose has been volunteering 35 hours per week since March to get the thrift store up and running.

The shop will be located in the lower level of FOR's Sto-Rox Family Health Center, 710 Thompson Ave.

Volunteers have named it "Sister Sarah's Second Chances Thrift Store" after Sister Sarah Crotty, the associate director of FOR.

Initially the thrift store will be open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Ms. Rose said. She hopes the store can be open six days per week when more volunteers are recruited.

"We have a core of about eight volunteers now," Ms. Rose said, including Nancy Hager and Rose Lenner, McKees Rocks residents volunteer with FOR every day.

Ms. Rose said she took on this project "because I have time on my hands and I've been involved in retail all my life."

She currently works from home operating Internet businesses, including clothing sales.

"I feel so blessed to be doing this. FOR has touched so many lives," Ms. Rose said. "You volunteer there and you see how lives are changed."

Goodwill Industries, which has been operating thrift stores and resale stores for decades, "opened their hearts and doors to us. We spent a day with them" as Goodwill workers gave operating tips to the FOR volunteers, Ms. Rose said.

More donations and volunteers are always needed.

"We'll take anything people are willing to donate," Ms. Rose said.

Donations can be taken to the rear of the building -- to a door painted red by volunteers hoping to make it easy for donors to find the right place.

Information: 412-771-6460.