After a long-standing presence in Cape Coral, the Cape Kidney Foundation Thrift Store is set to close on Saturday, March 24.

If you are a bargain hunter, and want proceeds to go to a worthy charity, you can shop now. As long as they last, you can fill a shopping bag of clothes for only $2, and get great deals on furniture, lots of housewares items and general household hardware.

Sharon Childers is the president and store manager of the Cape Coral Kidney Foundation Thrift Store.

“We’re extremely sad about this,” she said of the closing. “Some of our volunteers have been there since 1978 when it first started. Some are in their 80s and 90s, they are just devastated.”

The shop is at 1515 Del Prado Blvd.

The building has been sold and the lease has not been extended, she said.

Part of the problem in relocating is that Childers and assistant manager Susan Stier just do not have the time or energy to rebuild.

No one else has been able to step up and take on the monumental task – let alone finance it.

“We are an all-volunteer organization, none of us have ever been paid for our work,” she said, adding many others just can’t do it in this time, age and economy.

“Saturday, March 24, will be our last day of business and I have marked everything down, including the store fixtures and all clothing you can fit in a bag for $2. Once the store is closed we will continue to support the local dialysis centers until the money runs out.”

Any further donations should be taken to the Cape Coral Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Store, she said, right across the street from the hospital.

She said she would like to thank the community for its continued support throughout the years.

“I do feel we have filled a dual purpose. We were able to provide funding for the dialysis centers as well as giving out customers the best deal in town that a thrift store can offer,” she said.

The address, again, is 1515 Del Prado Blvd., two blocks north of Wal-Mart on Del Prado.

The phone number is 458-8242.