Bryanna Freeman, of North Washington, shops with her children, Makaiah, 9, and Brynlie, 6, at Community Christian Thrift Store in Washington Township on Wednesday. Freeman made use of the store's “fill a bag with clothes for $3” deal. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

WASHINGTON TWP — Visitors at Community Christian Thrift Store at 1005 Annisville Road sometimes travel back in time a little.

Hand-carved wooden sculptures, china tea sets and elaborate Bavarian beer steins fill the shelves. Party games for families, toys for children, and model ships in glass bottles pack the room.

“We do get antiques in,” said Debbie Thompson, who has managed the store for more than five years. “We got this big chest, and it was full of Civil War pictures, Civil War letters from family members. So I researched it. I went down to the library in Foxburg, and we finally found a grandson, I think, in South Carolina.”

This descendant she found turned out to have an ancestor, who worked in a Pittsburgh steel mill. That descendant donated $500, so Thompson could ship the chest to him.

Treasures that find their way to Thompson’s store, which Six Points Church of God of Prophecy operates, ultimately support the surrounding community. Whether proceeds from sales go toward compensating fire victims, covering funerals from COVID-19 or benefiting the Butler VA Health Care System, they serve people who need help in some way.

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