Pop-Up Shop Brings Happiness to Seniors in North Carolina

Entrepreneur Michele Speed founded a free pop-up thrift store program to spread hope, joy, and commerce to seniors and senior care community residents in eastern North Carolina, reports WCTI NewsChannel 12 . Speed, a cancer survivor who was confined to a wheelchair for three years, envisions her Care Center Thrift Stores concept providing seniors with small things that could make a big difference in their lives. "I had 24-hour nursing care; they even chose what I ate," she recalls. "I understand what it's like not having those choices. This program gives them their choices back. They can choose the color of the pencils they want, the toothbrush they want — it also lets them know that they aren't forgotten." Speed is now collecting contributions of everything from books to cosmetics to toiletries to help seniors shop for items at her pop-up stores at no cost.