Dunnellon Community Thrift Shop donates $499 to DHS boys volleyball team

When the net broke the day before the Dunnellon boys volleyball team was supposed to host a match, players and staff came to a realization: they needed help.

It was the same net shared between the school’s physical education program, the girls volleyball team in the fall, and the boys team in the spring. That constant use had taken its toll on the equipment and finally proved to be too much.

“We’ve been with this raggy net game after game,” said Dunnellon’s boys volleyball coach Naeroby Lopez. “We’ve got about two games per week and so every time we have to put this net together it’s [a hassle] figuring it out and … it’s embarrassing to be quite honest.”

With the net officially broken, the obvious move was to buy a new one. However, according to Lopez, COVID-19 mitigation expenses have put school budgets under even more stress than usual and there simply weren’t funds available to replace it.

Instead, the team turned to the community for help.

“I got the team together and told them to make their way around to the local shops here. I’ve gotten great feedback from other coaches as far as the community helping, and so we thought that would be a good way to go,” Lopez said.

Within a short time, the Tigers had received more than a dozen donations from local businesses. And while any and all contributions have been greatly appreciated, one shop, in particular, stood out above the rest.

The Dunnellon Community Thrift Shop is a not-for-profit store in town known for helping support needs in the community. A few years ago, the shop had even helped out Dunnellon assistant coach Tonya DeRose during her battle with cancer.

With her team in need this time, DeRose reached out once again, and the response the team got was more than they could have imagined.

“They (the 32 volunteers that make up the shop) usually meet once a week and they said they would put us on the top of the list to discuss the opportunity to be able to help us out,” Lopez said. “They reached out about a week later, telling us they’d be willing to donate $499.

“Honestly it really left me speechless. I really did not expect that, so it’s a wonderful surprise. There’s just no feeling quite like being able to reach out, asking for help, and having everyone come together and seeing the outcome. It’s just been amazing. It’s been mind-blowing,” Lopez said.

Run entirely by volunteers, the Dunnellon Community Thrift Shop has been in business for nearly 50 years. Every item the shop sells has been donated, and expenses are kept as low as possible so that nearly every cent that the store makes can be given back to the community.

“We really believe in promoting sports, particularly now during the pandemic. Anything that gets the kids outside and involved or at the school,” said Joann McCullough, head of publicity for the thrift shop.

“There’s never any strings attached. We don’t require them to turn in a receipt or anything of that sort.”

The thrift shop has actually been unable to give away as much over the past year as they normally would have. The pandemic forced the shop to close from March until October 2020 (open only three days a week since then) and since the money they donate depends entirely on the amount they make, the shop has had to cut back on donations.

“It cut our income way back,” McCullough said.

As of May 1, the thrift shop added a fourth day, now running Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Under the current hours, McCullough said they hope to be able to give away about $2,000 to $3,000 per month.

Now, with the help of the thrift shop's most recent donation, and that of 14 other businesses, the Dunnellon boys volleyball team has raised $1,149. The cost of a new net, however, runs closer to the $3,000 mark, meaning the team still has a long way to go.

With the 2021 season over, the team has until the beginning of next school year to raise the remaining amount. The Tigers have more fundraisers scheduled to help make that happen and even plan to make T-shirts with the names of all of their sponsors.

“I hope to raise more funds and get a nice set for the boys for the program to continue,” Lopez said. “We can’t play volleyball without the net.”