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About Us!

Our Mission is Simple...

To support local non-profit organizations through recycling, re-purposing, and reselling generously donated goods and to provide the opportunity to purchase affordable merchandise at our shop.


Thanks to your generous donations, in 2023 we were able to give grants to 82 non-profits. On behalf of these deserving organizations, we thank you for your donations and for shopping with us.


We also awarded 11 scholarships in 2023, each worth $5000.

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Shop History

In April 1937, the idea for the Ridgefield Thrift Shop was presented to members of the District Nursing Association by their President, Mrs. Theodore Jessup. She felt that such a shop could, in time, contribute a good part of the necessary funds needed to run the DNA.

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Under the enthusiastic guidance of Mrs. J. Whitney Peterson, the first shop was opened in what was known as The Balcony. The shop was beautiful and roomy, and sold such things as jade bracelets and Tang horses. However, in less than a year, the rent for the shop became so expensive it had to move or the profits would be whittled away.


In February 1939, the shop moved to the only available space on Main Street, the current Coldwell Banker location, then owned by S. S. Denton.

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The Ridgefield Thrift Shop was incorporated in 1946 as an independent non-profit organization chartered to sell donated goods to raise money for other charitable organizations that supported Ridgefield residents.

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The Thrift Shop continued to grow and in June of 1960 moved to 15 Catoonah Street where it flourished for the next 57 years.  Interestingly, this building was the original church for St. Mary’s Parish built in 1879 and enlarged in 1888. The Ridgefield Visiting Nursing Association, formerly the DNA, owns that building. 

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In 2017, the shop moved to 21B Governor Street in the Donnelly Plaza.  The new shop provides twice the selling space, better parking, easier drop off and greater visibility. This move signifies the continuing growth of the shop and its need to better serve the Ridgefield community.

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Over one hundred active volunteers work diligently to run RTS.  Every year over seventy charitable organizations receive monetary contributions raised through the sale of the generous donations from Ridgefield area residents.  The RVNA, of course, in keeping with our history, is among them.

Ridgefield Thrift Shop
Past Presidents

RTS would not be where it is today with out the contribution of all our wonderful past presidents and their leadership.  We are grateful for all the contributions each one has made over the  years!

1. Julia Woodford
2. Clementine Peterson
3. Nancy Fawcett
4. Mrs. Harvey Lowy
5. Marette Jessup
6. Wynn Aldrich
7. Mrs. J.S. Bell
8. Mrs. Sereno Jacobs
9. Denise Hanneman
10. Gretchen Torrey
11. Lee Axle
12. Elaine Houlberg
13. Helen Merrick
14. Nancy Jessup
15. Irma Scofield
16. Flavia Scott
17. Thelma Black
18. Betty Kellogg
19. Jean Bride
20. Jo Dioguardi
21. Eliner Clark
22. Pat Walker
23. Judy Brush
24. Iris McCleary
25. Muriel Pedersen
26. Par Weitzel
27. Iris McCleary
28. Wendy Multer
29. Linnea Lundblad
30. Eleanore Williams
31. Natalie Claypool
32. Anne Blackwell
33. Barbara Teasdale
34. Karen Montieth
35. Bettie Caraway
36. Sandy Ranki
37. Eleanor Williams
38. Barbara Seibert
39. Barbara Teasdale
40. Kathy Wong
41. Gen Fagan
42. Carol Gardell
43. Sabine Kloeckner
44. Mary Ellen Loncto
45. Sandra Capriotti
46. Patricia Hellman


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