Goodwill is hiring
Needs public’s help with donations including ‘gently used clothing, household items’
By donating to Goodwill Industries Knoxville, Inc. — 148 West End Ave. in Farragut — you help Goodwill in its effort to ease the dangerously high unemployment rate during the coronavirus pandemic.
“A real need” exists for “gently used clothing and household items” such as “clothing, blankets, rugs, furniture, chairs, dressers … kitchen items such as mixers” since re-opening Friday, May 1 (having been closed since March 21), said Cindy Dodson, Special Events/Marketing coordinator for Goodwill’s 29 Knoxville metro-area stores serving 15 counties.
“We test everything beforehand to make sure … they work before we put them on our sales floor.”
As for being safe in light of COVID-19 concerns, “Any donation items that are brought in to us, they are quaranteed for three days before they go onto our sales floor,” Dodson said. “… Our staff are wearing masks. We encourage customers to wear masks.
“Because our donations are what supports all of our training programs we do, we don’t turn anything down with the exception of items we know do not re-sell (such as) mattresses, exercise equipment,” she added.
To donate items or shop, hours at all locations are from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. “You don’t need to call ahead, just go by one of our locations” to either donate or shop, Dodson said.
If you wish to donate monetarily, visit www.goodwillknoxville.org
Job opportunities
“We have a lot of job openings within Goodwill, from management all the way down,” Dodson said.
As for its job-training programs, “We can now offer — and we’re real excited about this — Google’s IT Support Professional Program to individuals who are interested in getting into the IT field,” she said, which is among other no-cost Goodwill job training options available.
For more information about Goodwill job openings and its Google IT Professional Support Program, call 865-588-8567 and ask for the Workforce Development and Human Resource Department.
Among Goodwill’s nine Knox County stores, locations also can be found in Hardin Valley (11509 Hardin Valley) and Bearden (5307 Kingston Pike).
