Salvation Army’s new digs

Salvation Army Captain Mitham Clement is all smiles. The 10-year veteran of the philanthropic organization here is the commander of a growing arsenal arrayed against the menaces of drug abuse, societal and domestic turmoil, and poverty, among other ills.

That’s because Kaua‘i’s Salvation Army is now the proud owner of the former Kress building on Rice Street, thought to be the largest Salvation Army property in the islands.

“People’s lives are being touched. That’s what this is really all about,” says the mildmannered, self-described minister/administrator.

“I believe this is the biggest property in the state.”

The place is huge. No, it’s colossal. No, it’s stupendous.

Let’s put it this way: 30,000 square feet of building space, complete with a massive floor area that looks more like an aircraft carrier’s hanger bay than a thrift store, and enough rooms and offices in the back to open a small hotel.

“We’d like to use this building for all sorts of things,” Mitham says.

The thrift store opens Sept. 1, and the Salvation Army plans a “communications center” later to be used in times of crisis or emergency. By October, they will have moved their Family Services division out of its existing location near the County Building on Hardy Street to the new facility.

With all that activity and expansion, the Salvation Army is hiring. They’ll need at least four new employees to help run the thrift shop, which is easily twice the size of the existing store.

For the meager price of $1.3 million, the Salvation Army managed to secure both the building and the land from John King, an Oahu-based land owner who sold the property at a loss.

“It was truly a great thing that he did,” Mitham said. “The property is easily worth more than what we paid.”

Still, there’s plenty of renovating to be done and costs ahead.

The new air conditioning system will run at least $50,000, Mitham says, and they’ll have to pay for it slowly, over time. After all, the Salvation Army isn’t rich. They’ve had to rely on the largess of the community, both here in Kaua‘i and across the state. The national and state organizations have helped to partly pay for the project, and Kaua‘i- Salvation Army’s new digs based businesses have given freely of the their time and expertise to renovate the building.

Even the real estate agent who negotiated the deal contributed his commission. It’s that kind of generosity that keeps people like Mitham in the field. Originally from Micronesia, Mitham has been part of the Lihu‘e and Kaua‘i Corps long enough to have experienced everything from preaching sermons on Sunday, to helping to feed the hungry and cloth the poor, to fixing his parishioners’ toilets. The only thing he hasn’t seen is a hurricane. And that, perhaps, is the primary reason behind the purchase of the building. Sturdy, with solid concrete foundations, thick steel stanchions and powerful joists, the decades-old building has withstood both Hurricane Ewa and Iniki with little damage. “That was really one of the selling points when we went to the advisory board with the project,” Mitham said. “This place will be a shelter in the storm, literally.” Over the course of the year, Mitham says the Salvation Army will apply for grants and seek community support to complete the renovation of the building, which he hopes will be complete by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the building will operate as a thrift store, selling donated clothing and household items cheap. That money will be used to partly finance the renovation, among other things.

The Salvation Army’s thrift store operation is really big business. Nearly 70 percent of the $385,000 Lihu‘e and Kaua‘i operating budget comes from thrift store proceeds.

The money is used to pay for work programs, senior and youth programs, food and clothing assistance, utility and shelter assistance, camps, and, soon, a soup kitchen. Mitham figures the Kaua‘i Salvation Army assists some 300 to 500 Kauaians with food each month. And that number should increase when they open their soup kitchen in October, which will be the first soup kitchen on Kaua‘i, Mitham thinks. “With all these programs, that’s why we really need the store to be expanded,” Mitham said. It’s the kind of arsenal build up, perhaps, the world could use a little more of.