NEWTON FALLS, Ohio - The Church Mouse Thrift Shoppe is celebrating 40 years of giving back to Newton Falls.

The volunteer-run shop opened back in 1985 after a tornado hit the city. As truckloads of donated food, materials and clothes came in, aid trucks needed a place to set up and the Ministerial Association was tasked with taking over the distribution. Since then, the thrift shop has been taking in donated items from community members, running as a storefront, food pantry and community donor.

"For 40 years we've been repurposing many donated items," Rick Braun, the shop's treasurer, told 21 News.

Two of the pastors who were members of the Newton Falls Ministerial Association when it started in 1983 and have seen Church Mouse grow from its humble beginnings were also in attendance to celebrate the anniversary event.

Newton Falls Community food pantry also operates out of the thrift shop. For nearly 20 years, the pantry bounced from church to church until it settled into Church Mouse as its permanent home, Braun said. The food pantry offers meals to community members in need every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday between 10 a.m. and noon.

Over the past several years as the thrift store's been turning a profit, Braun said they have also focused their funding on education, through school supplies and scholarships. Six years ago they began providing all of the school supplies for Newton Falls City Schools. More recently they have set up a scholarship program, donating over $60,000 in scholarships to Newton Falls graduates in the past four years. 

"And it's not just college. If they're going to a trade school, that's fine with us. They're furthering their education and we're trying to help them along in that journey, hoping they remember this community later in life," Braun said.

The Ministerial Association, Braun said, is "here to help the community," meeting its needs even as they change over the years. The Church Mouse Thrift Shoppe has been a 40-year-long thread tying the community into the association's efforts to give back.

"It has been working and we're praying that it keeps working," Braun said. "Nobody expected when they started it that it would be here this long."