BELLEVILLE – Antonina V. Durham is the owner of the Heartbeat Thrift Shop, a store that promotes deals based on education and work ethic for people who are financially troubled.
Durham gives away free clothes to people in the community who are pursuing their education.
“Free clothes in our store is not just a given. For example I look at education as not easy, it’s a very brave decision people do in terms of their personal development.”
Durham is 61 and was born in Tomsk, Russia. She came to Canada 18 years ago and brought with her the idea that knowledge is wealth, something she promotes in her store everyday.
“My motto in life is give support to people. I really enjoy to see how people grow, but I prefer to teach people how to fish instead of giving them a fish okay?”
Originally Durham’s store was like any other thrift shop, selling goods for discounted prices. Durham explained that as she grew with the store her concept of what it’s function would be, changed.
“I found out the concept of store changed from just from selling merchandise to teaching,” she said. “When I look at the store, it’s like a different concept of a store, for me it’s like a community centre because we start to see how people are going from 0-17, we see how people die out , we see people go through troubles and they come to us to talk.”
Durham said that she donates clothes to help initiate development within the community. She gives clothes to those who are deserving of the gesture and who she believes are not taking advantage of system she’s created.
“When I give clothes here for free it’s not just because I give but I try to initiate people for development,” she said. “For me a thrifty approach in life is development because you are better in society, you are better with yourself and you’re better with mother nature.
She explained that she believes the North American consumer culture has become accustomed to buying new things even when the old ones are still usable or salvageable.
“Just encourage people to do things, fix things, because you can. People forget and when people don’t have the tools to do things they’re lost because they have to buy you have to make money,” she said. “To make money you have to work, certain wages to certain degrees and it never stops. Because what is the limit?”
Durham see’s potential in what she’s doing, she believes that by teaching people and giving them opportunities to develop themselves she can make a positive difference.
“It’s not free but it’s teaching and its hope. Its shows that opportunities do exist you just have to look for them. In Canadian society we are given so much that it’s almost become an addiction. People are losing their survival skills.”