Helping Hand of Sheperd's Closet

Are you looking to get rid of gently used clothing or household items? The Shepherd's Closet is your place to go!

Located in the Burns complex, Burns, WY, is a purely volunteer run organization to help people in need. You will find gently used clothes, household items, books, puzzles, games, home health equipment, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene items, baby items as well as seasonal items. This year the Shepherd's Closet is NOT accepting any food items, due to the complexity of storage and handling, it has been decided to let other groups in the community handle food donations. Electronics and large furniture items are some of the other things the group does not want dropped off. "There is just not any room for the furniture and electronics are hard to dispose of," per Betty King, director of the Shepherd's Closet.

Started in March of 2013, by Sophia Aerhart and Faith Moulton. It started out as one room, however it didn't take long to out grow that room. The Town of Burns, graciously donated another room for this organization. There is one room dedicated to adults and house-ware and one for infants to children. Golden Prairie church has been very supportive to this project, in particular David Steege. Steege has built racks and the donation box for the Shepherds Closet. This organization is run by a four person board, most in there senior time of live; but the work keeps them busy and young, of course the volunteers are a big part of the day to day operations. You will find one of the board members in at different times.

Donations are acquired by individuals throughout the community and gladly excepted at all times. There is a large need for "Halloween" costumes, men's pants, coats and Thanksgiving decorations and of course monitory contributions are always welcome. It is a boast to a persons "spirit" to decorate for the holidays, even in the hard times.

When the Shepherd's closet has an "over" run of items they send them to Needs in Cheyenne or Destiny Church. These are other organizations in the area that are also free to the public. The board members feel that if it was donated to a free organization, it should stay with a free organization! The store is well organized and clean. This is out of respect to the "customers" that shop in the store.

There is no income verifications for receiving items, if you are in need, you are welcome to come in and get what you need. "It is refreshing to see donations going out to the needy; but new donations, of the same caliber, come in shortly there after" per Lesley Fennell, volunteer and board member. There are some people that come in and pick up items for missions as well as to send to relative in other areas, that is perfectly fine at this time, since they have a large number of items. Even though donations are coming in there is a high demand for more as well as more volunteers. Volunteers are needed to sort through the item to make sure they are in good repair and do not have any odors to them, before items are put out on the racks and shelves. The Shepherds Closet is open the same time as the town hall (Monday – Thursday 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m and Friday 7:30 a.m, to 12:30 p.m.), as well as from 8:00 a.m.-Noon on Saturdays. This store is run on the honor system and if you feel the need to leave monitory contributions it is put to good use for purchasing racks and bookcases for expansion.