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COMPUTER TRAINING EXCEL for WINDOWS 338â€"6600 acapemy or Leaaning Oakville‘s Business School Peter McDonald, Amity‘s executive director, helps Mayor Ann Mulvale try on a new coat at the recent opening of Amity‘s new retail store and donation centre at 407A Speers Rd. (Photo by Peter McCusker) Amity 0 By WILMA BLOKHUIS Focus Editor ecycling comes with many benefits at Amity. It diverts tons of materiâ€" als from the landfill sites; provides, through secâ€" ondâ€"hand shops, good used clothing and small household items at bargain prices. It creates employment, helps the disâ€" abled community, and pays for employâ€" ment rehabilitation and counselling. So, when you‘re filling up your resiâ€" dential ‘Blue Box,‘ why not give some thought, and some good used clothing and small household items, to Amity Goodwill Industries? For 59 years, Amity has sold donatâ€" ed goods, initially to provide relief to the unemployed during the Great Depression, to create employment and training for the disabled. Last year, Amity provided job trainâ€" ing and rehabilitation to 620 people who were successfully placed in competitive employment, states Barry Coe, its direcâ€" tor of community relations. And, of its 354 employees, 50% are disabled. ALL WORKERS EQUAL At the recently opened Amity Goodwill Industries retail outlet and donation centre at 407A Speers Rd., half of its staff of 10 (four full time and six partâ€"time) have a disability. However, all employees work side by side as equals in the clean, spacious, brightly lit, and well organized store. + Mailboxes Fic. 338â€"2835 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1994 Hopedale Maill Page 15 The store, open since March 9th, has 4,500 square feet of retail space, which on its first day of business, generated $5,600 in sales, said Coe. Money generâ€" ated at the store will be plowed back into the operation which is to have its own sanitation (steam tunnel), sorting, sizing and pricing operation compleâ€" menting a donation centre, plus office space to provide rehabilitation services, says Coe, These services will occupy the remaining 2,000 square feet of space at the rear of the store. «[ "The Oakville expansion reflects the optimism and confidence that Amity has in its mission of providing retail and job rehabilitation services to the people of Halton." Peter McDonald Executive Director Amity Goodwill Industries Serving Oakville for Over 30 years, Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. *Sunday 12 Noon to 5:00 p.m. (*Not all stores may be open) Located at 3rd Line and Rebecca in Oakville + 827â€"0229» pens Oakville store Coe expects the additional services will be fully operational by fall, with additional local people to be hired for the new jobs to be created. The rehabiliâ€" tation office is expected to be in full serâ€" vice by the end of this year, with a partâ€" time staff keeping close contacts with local social service agencies and a matching of "people‘s skills with employers‘ needs." INDEPENDENT STORE Amity‘s most easterly store is to become "quasiâ€"independent" within the Hamiltonâ€"based organization. The store opening follows a year of research, based on the responses of 10,000 flyers distributed to homes between Fourth Line and Kerr Street. "Over 40% of our donations are colâ€" lected in Oakville and Burlington, where a second Amity store was sucâ€" cessfully opened last year. "We felt an obligation to the people of Oakville to put something back into this area to create jobs and provide rehaâ€" bilitation services," in return for record amounts of donations collected in Oakville at its two Attended Donation Centres (the Amity trailers) at Trafalgar Village and Hopedale Mall. For several years, the Trafalgar Village location netâ€" ted the most donations of any of Amity‘s 12 trailer locations between here and Niagara Falls. And, by opening day last spring, the Hopedale trailer was already filled to overflowing, after less than a week at the mall‘s parking lot. See ‘Amity . ..‘ page 16)