Winter Park Benefit Shop serves local residents, Central Florida charities

You can find just about anything in the little shop connected to Winter Park City Hall.
For Winter Park residents and visitors, stepping inside the Winter Park Benefit Shop — which somehow sits off Park Avenue in both plain sight and obscurity all at once — is a discovery all its own.
“It’s an eclectic bunch of stuff,” Benefit Shop Treasurer and Casselberry resident Susan Laws said. “You never know what you’re going to get in.”
From bowling balls and VCRs to clothing and assorted knickknacks, there’s something for everybody.
That’s the goal of the Winter Park Benefit Shop: to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs something — all for a greater cause.
The shop filled with odds and ends takes in donated items of all kinds and sells them at discounted prices to those in need or anyone looking for a hidden gem.
From the single parent looking for a new outfit for a job interview to the person simply looking for some new sneakers, the Benefit Shop has its doors open.
“Sometimes in the winter, homeless people ask for blankets and things like that,” Benefit Shop Secretary and Orlando resident Roberta Levinson said. “Typically, we just give them the blankets. We usually have a supply.”
All proceeds from sales go to a list of charities chosen by the Benefit Shop’s Board of Directors. Some of those causes include the American Council of the Blind, Harbor House of Central Florida, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, New Hope for Kids, the Winter Park Day Nursery and many others.
The Benefit Shop gifted $14,000 to the charities last year.
“It makes it all pay off,” Levinson said.
The Benefit Shop has evolved over time. It was first founded on April 16, 1917, under a parent organization called the United Relief Society, which began simply as a movement of women delivering groceries and clothes to those in need. It later was renamed the Winter Park Welfare Association in April 1921 before it became the Winter Park Benefit Shop in October 1935, when the little shop filled with goods first opened where Pannullo’s Italian Restaurant sits today.
The shop later moved to Lyman Avenue in the 1940s, where the Winter Park Welcome Center sits today. It stood there for about 60 years before it eventually relocated to its current location at City Hall in 2006 — setting up shop in the city’s old jail.
Sunlight fills the room through barred windows, and a heavy metal door with a peephole once used to keep prisoners in solitary confinement now leads to a storage closet. None of that stops frequent shoppers and curious visitors alike from searching through the many items on shelves and hangers.
The Benefit Shop recently expanded its hours to include from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays to give more guests a chance to discover and enjoy.