Golden Rule Clothes Closet closes after 27 years of giving
Owner’s late wife started the ministry, providing clothes, household items, toys
Published: November 8, 2018
FORT SMITH — The Golden Rule Clothes Closet, which provided clothing, household items, furniture, bicycles, toys and nursery equipment to the River Valley for 27 years, closed its doors permanently Nov. 3.
“We’d even given away three cars and a van that had been donated, lock, stock and barrel,” Clyde Chaney, manager of the Clothes Closet, said. “Buy your own gas.”
Chaney’s wife Betty, who died Sept. 28, 2016, after a long illness, started the agency in 1991 as a school uniform exchange for Fort Smith’s Catholic schools, but the ministry quickly expanded as she became aware of how many people in the area needed help acquiring clothing and household items.
In 1995, when the Clothes Closet outgrew its room in St. Anne’s Center, First National Bank gave the organization a building on 212 N. 3rd St. in downtown Fort Smith. Clyde Chaney helped his wife on evenings and weekends until he retired 18 years ago, and after that they operated as a full-time mom and pop ministry until Betty became too sick to continue.
Once Betty needed full-time home care, Clyde Chaney, now 88, needed to hire three part-time employees to help him with the store. That put pressure on the Golden Rule Clothes Closet’s budget, and donations were
Article source: https://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/5836/Golden-Rule-Clothes-Closet-closes-after-27-years-of-giving