We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lorrie Myers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lorrie below.

Lorrie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

We are a Creative Reuse Center located in Southwest Colorado Springs.

Our tiny 400 sq ft pop up shop has grown to a 12,406 sq ft Creative Hub with a classroom, movement room and 14 subsidized private artists studios. All of this funded through the donations of Art and Crafting supplies that are sold in our retail shop.

We boast being the 1st Public Benefit Corporation allowed in the state of Colorado.
Our mission is trash diversion.
To date we have diverted 251 Tons from the local landfill. That’s 502,000 lbs.

We have 34 active volunteers that commit to working every week along with 7 more that do monthly community Art SWAPS at our Public Libraries.

We also support 14 non profits in Colorado.

Our personal goal for the store is paying living wages which we have accomplished this year. Out of our 10 employees, 8 rely on the store solely to support themselves.

“How did this all get started “is the most asked question.

In May of 2015 I visited my 1st Creative Reuse Center in another state. At the time my friend and I were looking for something that was fun and would give back to the community . A Creative Reuse Center seemed to fit the bill!

November 1, 2015 we opened our first store at Ivywild home of Bristol Brewing as a pop-up.

We set goals with the owners to pay monthly subsidized rent, repay the subsidy and divert 1 ton/2,000 lbs in 60 days.

Well……….in 60 days we paid our rent, reimbursed them for the subsidy and diverted 4.5 tons! We also outgrew our space by a lot! We had no place to move to and signed a year lease.

3 weeks later our volunteer Realtor found a 1,200 sq ft shop in Old Colorado City with on street parking.

We opened a shop that spring in Ft Collins that grew from 800 sq ft to 6,000 sq ft with a parking lot.

The 2 Colorado Springs shop combined & moved closer to downtown into a 3,400 sq ft location. There was a small classroom and receiving backdoor. The attached parking lot that was on loan to us but we were so much better off.

then COVID happened

Due to size at the Colorado Springs shop we had to be closed on Mondays so that our team of volunteers could come in, clean, restock and reset the store.
We would open for business on Tuesday with only 14 bodies allowed in at a time including employees.
There were lines of customers, parents were angry because children were not allowed in, everyone had to have a number to shop, mask were strictly enforced, everything had to be sanitized. We all smelled of bleach and then………….

Ft Collins did not survive and closed in August.

On September 14 I pulled up to our shop to let the volunteers in and found out that overnight we lost the use of our parking lot.

I sat in my car and called our Realtor that helped us in the past

and said “We need to move.”

He asked “when?”

I responded with “yesterday”

My business partner retired that same month and I decided to start over.

Within 3 weeks I had signed a lease for a former grocery store that had been converted into a gym/rehabilitation center that sat vacant for 2 years but it has a HUGE parking lot.

I sold my rental house for funding to keep us alive.

Now what to do with 16 individual offices, a break room, 3 rooms with floated wood floors, and a huge open space that originally contained weights and treadmill machines. I remember thinking, “if I could just rent out 3 of these little offices as Artist Studios then I could start saving enough money to teardown walls. Who would want all these offices.

We moved everything the weekend of November 20th and opened for business the day after Thanksgiving.

Fast forward to today. We never took down a single wall. We have rented all 14 offices as affordable Artists Studios. We have a movement studio, an Art Classroom and 8,000 sq ft of retail space.

We have never accepted any grants or funding and have done this all with the proceeds from the sale of goods sold in the retail store and passive income created by the studios and classrooms.

I always speak in “WE” It drives my husband crazy but I have always said that I am not the owner. I am the Founder and Who gives A SCRAP is owned by the community that supports it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are a Creative Reuse Center located in Southwest Colorado Springs.

Our tiny 400 sq ft pop up shop has grown to a 12,406 sq ft Creative Hub with a classroom, movement room and 14 subsidized private artists studios. All of this funded through the donations of Art and Crafting supplies that are sold in our retail shop.

We boast being the 1st Public Benefit Corporation allowed in the state of Colorado.
Our mission is trash diversion.
To date we have diverted 251 Tons from the local landfill. That’s 502,000 lbs.

We have 34 active volunteers that commit to working every week along with 7 more that do monthly community Art SWAPS at our Public Libraries.

We also support 14 non profits in Colorado.

Our personal goal for the store is paying living wages which we have accomplished this year. Out of our 10 employees, 8 rely on the store solely to support themselves.

“How did this all get started “is the most asked question.

In May of 2015 I visited my 1st Creative Reuse Center in another state. At the time my friend and I were looking for something that was fun and would give back to the community . A Creative Reuse Center seemed to fit the bill!

November 1, 2015 we opened our first store at Ivywild home of Bristol Brewing as a pop-up.

We set goals with the owners to pay monthly subsidized rent, repay the subsidy and divert 1 ton/2,000 lbs in 60 days.

Well……….in 60 days we paid our rent, reimbursed them for the subsidy and diverted 4.5 tons! We also outgrew our space by a lot! We had no place to move to and signed a year lease.

3 weeks later our volunteer Realtor found a 1,200 sq ft shop in Old Colorado City with on street parking.

We opened a shop that spring in Ft Collins that grew from 800 sq ft to 6,000 sq ft with a parking lot.

The 2 Colorado Springs shop combined & moved closer to downtown into a 3,400 sq ft location. There was a small classroom and receiving backdoor. The attached parking lot that was on loan to us but we were so much better off.

then COVID happened

Due to size at the Colorado Springs shop we had to be closed on Mondays so that our team of volunteers could come in, clean, restock and reset the store.
We would open for business on Tuesday with only 14 bodies allowed in at a time including employees.
There were lines of customers, parents were angry because children were not allowed in, everyone had to have a number to shop, mask were strictly enforced, everything had to be sanitized. We all smelled of bleach and then………….

Ft Collins did not survive and closed in August.

On September 14 I pulled up to our shop to let the volunteers in and found out that overnight we lost the use of our parking lot.

I sat in my car and called our Realtor that helped us in the past

and said “We need to move.”

He asked “when?”

I responded with “yesterday”

My business partner retired that same month and I decided to start over.

Within 3 weeks I had signed a lease for a former grocery store that had been converted into a gym/rehabilitation center that sat vacant for 2 years but it has a HUGE parking lot.

I sold my rental house for funding to keep us alive.

Now what to do with 16 individual offices, a break room, 3 rooms with floated wood floors, and a huge open space that originally contained weights and treadmill machines. I remember thinking, “if I could just rent out 3 of these little offices as Artist Studios then I could start saving enough money to teardown walls. Who would want all these offices.

We moved everything the weekend of November 20th and opened for business the day after Thanksgiving.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

We have “passive income” that supports us monthly. Rental of the Movement Room, Classroom, payment from Studio Artist for their space (rent is at a reduced rate), Etsy sales, sale of T-shirts and shopping bags, pay for events outside our store

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We used anything and everything that was FREE for our first 6 years. We are now on TikTok, FaceBook (free), Instagram (free), local news shows (free), public radio ads, newspaper

Contact Info:

• Website: https://whogivesascrapcolorado.com/
• Instagram: Who Gives a SCRAP – Colorado Springs
• Facebook: Who Gives a SCRAP – Colorado Springs

Image Credits
Chris Myers photography