HONDO, Texas – If you ever taken a drive and headed west on US Highway 90 and driven through the town of Hondo, you may have noticed the cozy cottage house called the Hondo Garden Club Thrift Shop.
Inside of the cottage, you’ll find gently used clothes for adults and children, dinnerware, books and antiques.
“You’d be surprised what people donate,” Lee Taylor, the former president of the Hondo Garden Club said. “It’s unbelievable. Everything in here was donated and we process it.”
The thrift shop is one of the many ways the Hondo Garden Club has been raising money for 75 years to give back to the community.
“We sometimes we pull in $1,000 a week, so that’s not bad, you know, so we have that money to to give back,” Taylor said.
Taylor is not only a former president of the club but also the current president of Texas Garden Clubs. She said the garden club is so much more than a club for gardening.
“It makes me feel more connected completely, you know, to everything,” Taylor said. “It’s just like our own little support group. If we have problems or things happen, you know, it’s just we all band together.”
Current president Mindy Coyne of the Hondo Garden Club said everyone in the club has common interests, a love for gardening and helping the community.
“We love nature, we love helping our community, and we get a lot of joy working together to make the community more beautiful,” Coyne said. “And it makes us feel more proud of Hondo.”
The club has done much for the Hondo community, from beautifying areas like local elementary schools and the football stadium with pocket gardens, to giving back scholarships, to donating to hundreds of organizations in Hondo over the years.
Coyne said to join them, you don’t even have to know how to garden, because it’s so much more than gardening for them.
“A lot of people say, I don’t want to be in the garden club, I don’t know anything about gardening,” Coyne said. “I say, You don’t have to. If you like helping the community and working hard, then come on here and we’ll teach you about gardening.”
If you would like to meet the Hondo Garden Club or visit their Thrift Shop, the shop is open every Thursday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at 1903 19th Street off of US Highway 90.
Donations for the thrift shop are accepted every Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. To learn more about the club, you can visit their Facebook page.