A new thrift store is coming to the Boise Bench. Here’s where, when and why
A new thrift store is slated to open in Boise in the space that long housed the Bench Commission, and it seeks your donations to get up and running.
Impact Thrift, a subsidiary of the nonprofit Chazak Rescue, will sell clothes, home goods and furniture at 4255 Rose Hill St. The store’s general managers, Robert and Lynn Weaver, moved their family to Kuna from Pennsylvania a year ago to find a space for the shop.
Chazak Rescue is a small Christian nonprofit founded in Pennsylvania’s Amish country near Lancaster. It reported $1.3 million in revenue in 2023. Chazak is a Hebrew word that has multiple meanings, including to “be strong,” according to the nonprofit.
“We have been thinking and praying about this for a year and a half,” Lynn Weaver said. “We moved here specifically to get the thrift store started for Chazak. We’re very passionate about it.”
All of the profits from the thrift store will go toward training Chazak Rescue teams to bring humanitarian aid to people in war zones and other high-risk areas around the globe, she said.
Chazak Rescue started its four-year rescue and response training program in 2021, the Lancaster Patriot reported. In early October, Chazak Rescue said, it sent a team to North Carolina to distribute supplies and help evacuate people who had been trapped in their homes from flooding from Hurricane Helene. In September, the nonprofit said it was in East Africa to help people displaced by war.
Robert Weaver said Chazak Rescue is not yet listed on charity-watch sites like Charity Navigator because it is still a young organization.
Robert Weaver told the Idaho Statesman that Chazak Rescue chose the Boise area for its latest thrift store because the nonprofit also owns Deadwood Outfitters in Cascade, a business that leads hunting, fishing and wilderness adventure trips in Idaho. Chazak Rescue uses Deadwood Outfitters as a base for its seven-week-long wilderness survival training in the summer. He said that having the thrift store located less than two hours away allows staff from both businesses to help each other out.
The couple said they hope to open Impact Thrift by the end of the year.
“We’re not open to retail yet but we are accepting donations,” Lynn Weaver said.
The Bench Commission previously occupied the 13,000-square-foot warehouse at the corner of Rose Hill and Roosevelt streets for about 75 years. Owner Ken Nill decided to wind down the buy-sell-trade business last spring and lease out the space. The Bench Commission sold furniture, antiques and various knickknacks.
The Weavers have been working on some interior improvements, like painting and setting up new shelving. They signed a lease with Nill in early September.
“We’re just happy to have a building to get started started in,” Lynn Weaver said.
Donation hours at Impact Thrift are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Donations are closed on Sunday and Monday. The store can also schedule donation pick ups in the Boise area for larger items.
