Description:"West Side Boutique offers clothing, books, toys and personal care items to soup kitchen patrons.
Spearheaded by soup kitchen volunteer Nancy Robert, the free store quickly expanded from a small spot in the basement to a classroom filled with clothes racks and tables, and myriad other items. The boutique is open on Monday and Wednesday.
Much of the inventory is new, and some is gently used. Over the winter, the boutique provided coats, boots, hats, scarves and gloves to soup kitchen guests in desperate need. Others have been outfitted with a set of new clothes to help them look sharp for job interviews.
Two barber chairs occupy one corner of the boutique that is now dubbed, West Side Salon, where guests can get haircuts from 12 to 1 on the first Monday of the month, thanks to Linda Perrymen and Debbie Moorhead, owners of Hair Solutions in Yorkville.
Nancy also coordinates health screenings, provided from noon to 1 on the second Thursday of the month by Dr. Mark Warfel, director of the Mohawk Valley Health System’s St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program, and doctors training to become family practitioners."