By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

The Greater Shelby County Chamber of Commerce and the new Foundry Thrift Store got an opportunity to do something unique on Dec. 14: Celebrate a business’ grand opening in two cities simultaneously.

“We are so excited to have this store in Shelby County, and to have half of it in Alabaster and the other half in Pelham,” said GSCCC Director of Community and Investor Development Keyla Handley. “We are representing two cities at the same time.”

The Alabaster-Pelham line runs through the new Foundry Thrift Store, which recently opened in the former Food Depot grocery store location off U.S. 31.

“I think this is the appropriate time of year to do this, because at The Foundry, it’s Christmas every day,” said Pelham Mayor Gary Waters.

The new thrift store marks the organization’s fourth in the Birmingham area, and has already seen a positive welcome from the community, said Foundry Ministries CEO Micah Andrews.

The Foundry operates its thrift stores as a “business within the nonprofit that serves to fund its ministries.”

“The new Pelham location brings jobs to Shelby County and provides employment readiness training to the men and women in The Foundry’s addiction recovery and prison re-entry programs,” read a release from the organization. “The store converts community donations into thrift store sales, which in turn fund The Foundry’s rescue, recovery and re-entry programs, which includes more than 400 program participants that live at The Foundry.”

“What we are doing is about building faith and rebuilding lives,” Andrews said. “It’s such a great and glorious reception we have received.”

For more information about The Foundry’s thrift stores and ministry programs, visit Foundryministries.com.