Share House - Pleasant Valley UMC

The motto of ShareHouse is “an exchange of goods and goodwill.” 

ShareHouse began in April of 2012 when two South Riding moms, Shellie Brown and Brynn Hansen, decided to collect a few outgrown, gently worn clothes and household items among themselves and their friends and start a monthly exchange. These events were held in their basements and anyone was welcome to take clothing.

In April of 2013, they invited their friend, Clara O’Brien, to join them and the events slowly began to grow and evolve. Soon the Parent Liaisons of South Riding’s schools were involved, and they helped get the word out in the community that anyone could go to the monthly events to get what they needed. The events outgrew Shellie’s and Brynn’s basements, so the events moved to the Dulles South Public Safety Center. Soon that space was outgrown as well and in February of 2014, Pleasant Valley United Methodist Church hosted an event at their Community Outreach Center. The church offered to be ShareHouse’s partner and permanent home.  

ShareHouse became a non-profit organization in 2016 and now has its own tax ID # and offers tax donation receipts. ShareHouse has a Facebook page, website page and a group of dedicated volunteers who continually get the word out in the community to let families in need know that about this important resource. ShareHouse continues to operate out of the Outreach Center and has grown into a full-blown non-profit and ministry now fully managed by a group of volunteers.

ShareHouse collects donated clothing and shoes to redistribute to over 100 families in our community for free. Currently we offer our services to those in Fairfax and Loudoun County communities. Clients are provided vouchers to use at our events where they can select clothing items to take home. Vouchers are distributed through our local partners and church’s.

In order for us to keep our doors open we need dedicated volunteers to fill the positions at our events. We hold sorting events and distribution events monthly. At the sorting events, volunteers will help set up tables, chairs and bins, sort through clothing and clean up. At our distribution events, volunteers will need to provide quality customer service through front desk support, shopping assistance, or child care assistance. We are also needing people to sort through our donations and manage each shopping section. 

These events would be a great way to give back to the community! We would love to have anyone come work on one, or all of our sessions!