Check made out to 757 Creative ReUse Center
Address to send check: 
300 Monticello Ave
Unit 206
Norfolk, VA 23510

<span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">Hey Folks,&nbsp; <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">Preface, this is lengthy, but it&rsquo;s also important to be transparent about the ongoing HVAC issues at MacArthur Center, which is owned by the City of Norfolk. The 757 Creative ReUse Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to decreasing waste, increasing creativity and educating about sustainability. We are Norfolk&rsquo;s ONLY arts and crafts supply store and we provide accessible and affordable second-hand supplies to inspire creativity and encourage reuse. We also serve as a safe third space and host community focused programming with our partner organizations. Our years of hard work are currently being completely derailed and financially threatened by the lack of properly working air conditioning.&nbsp; <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">If you&rsquo;ve been following along at home, you&rsquo;ll know that the air conditioning has been broken in some way or another pretty much since we started our lease. In June 2023, three months after moving in, we had no AC to our unit for over a month. After it was &ldquo;fixed&rdquo; it was frequently FREEZING (low 60s) for the rest of that summer. We asked &nbsp;to set it to a regular room temp, around 70-72, but that wasn&rsquo;t achievable, we just wore sweaters for the rest of the summer. Most of the fall of 2024 was too warm as well. Anytime we asked about it, we were told that it was working property, despite our space being too warm. In late May of 2025 we noticed that the humidity levels were very high and it felt like there wasn&rsquo;t enough air circulating. We reported this to mall management and were told that it would get checked.&nbsp; <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">As June started heating up, it got warmer and warmer inside. Finally on June 27th, we were told that the AC was working at 2/3 capacity and a part was on order. We&rsquo;d already been working for several weeks in temps surpassing 76 degrees with high humidity. Exhausted and needing a break, we decided to close for a couple days until the AC got fixed. After a week, the AC was still broken but we knew we had to reopen the shop even if it was still too warm and just do the best we could. Since then, there has been no reliable information from anyone at MacArthur Center or City of Norfolk about what is actually happening or when we can expect resolution. The most recent update we&rsquo;ve received stated that repairs will start sometime this week, but until they install the new part they&rsquo;re unable to assess if other repairs are needed. Some days have reached over 80 degrees and around 75% humidity.&nbsp; <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">Our staff all love our jobs and our community immensely, but right now we dread coming to work. It is a very inhospitable environment. We&rsquo;re working physically demanding jobs in incredibly poor conditions. We&rsquo;re all suffering from some amount of heat exhaustion, cramps, headaches, muscle weakness, and lack of focus. Our morale is incredibly low. We&rsquo;ve also limited our shifts to 4-hours at a time to alleviate some of the negative physical and emotional impacts of the heat. <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">So why am I telling you all this?&nbsp;<span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">Because it&rsquo;s had a direct, measurable, negative financial impact on our organization. Even if the AC is fixed by the time I&rsquo;ve finished writing this, we&rsquo;ve already lost revenue, we&rsquo;ve had to cancel all classes and refund tickets, and lost the hours and hours of planning time that went into all the classes that we&rsquo;ve had to cancel. We&rsquo;re also paying our staff based on their normal schedules for as long as we can, because it&rsquo;s just the right thing to do. But we won&rsquo;t be able to do that much longer without your help and an end to this HVAC nightmare.&nbsp; <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">If you have the resources available, please consider a tax deductible financial donation to help keep this valued community resource afloat. If you&rsquo;d like to help in other ways, please share this with your friends, colleagues, neighbors, quilt guilds, etc and/or on your social media accounts. Include a personal note about why the 757 Creative ReUse Center is so important to you and the community. If you&rsquo;d like to take it one step further, feel free to contact your&nbsp;<a fr-original-style="text-decoration:none;" href="https://www.norfolk.gov/200/City-Council" style="text-decoration: none; user-select: auto; box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank"><span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#1155cc;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">Norfolk City Council representative</a><span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">. Let them know that your favorite non-profit is struggling to stay afloat because of ongoing HVAC problems in a city owned property and ask what they plan on doing to help.&nbsp; <span fr-original-style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;" style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; box-sizing: inherit;">Our sincerest thank you goes out to each and every one of you for your continued support over the past six years. We absolutely would not be able to do what we do without your help. We&rsquo;re hoping to be around for many more years to come and it&rsquo;s pretty clear that it&rsquo;s time to start looking for our next home. We knew this time would come, eventually. We just didn&rsquo;t think it would be the HVAC that would send us packing.&nbsp;

Hello <span contenteditable="false" data-custom-variable="{{firstname}}" fr-original-class="fr-deletable styled-tag-chip" fr-original-style="" style="background-color: rgb(248, 248, 255); border: 1px solid rgb(191, 191, 255); border-radius: 4px; color: rgb(42, 42, 196); padding: 1px 8px; font-size: 11px; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: anywhere; user-select: none; box-sizing: inherit;">First name, Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting our cause. This donation greatly helps to continue supporting our staff in this time of uncertainty. Best,Beth DryerFounder and Executive Directorbeth@creativereusecenter.org

Hey Folks,  Preface, this is lengthy, but it’s also important to be transparent about the ongoing HVAC issues at MacArthur Center, which is owned by the City of Norfolk. The 757 Creative ReUse Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to decreasing waste, increasing creativity and educating about sustainability. We are Norfolk’s ONLY arts and crafts supply store and we provide accessible and affordable second-hand supplies to inspire creativity and encourage reuse. We also serve as a safe third space and host community focused programming with our partner organizations. Our years of hard work are currently being completely derailed and financially threatened by the lack of properly working air conditioning.  If you’ve been following along at home, you’ll know that the air conditioning has been broken in some way or another pretty much since we started our lease. In June 2023, three months after moving in, we had no AC to our unit for over a month. After it was “fixed” it was frequently FREEZING (low 60s) for the rest of that summer. We asked  to set it to a regular room temp, around 70-72, but that wasn’t achievable, we just wore sweaters for the rest of the summer. Most of the fall of 2024 was too warm as well. Anytime we asked about it, we were told that it was working property, despite our space being too warm. In late May of 2025 we noticed that the humidity levels were very high and it felt like there wasn’t enough air circulating. We reported this to mall management and were told that it would get checked.  As June started heating up, it got warmer and warmer inside. Finally on June 27th, we were told that the AC was working at 2/3 capacity and a part was on order. We’d already been working for several weeks in temps surpassing 76 degrees with high humidity. Exhausted and needing a break, we decided to close for a couple days until the AC got fixed. After a week, the AC was still broken but we knew we had to reopen the shop even if it was still too warm and just do the best we could. Since then, there has been no reliable information from anyone at MacArthur Center or City of Norfolk about what is actually happening or when we can expect resolution. The most recent update we’ve received stated that repairs will start sometime this week, but until they install the new part they’re unable to assess if other repairs are needed. Some days have reached over 80 degrees and around 75% humidity.  Our staff all love our jobs and our community immensely, but right now we dread coming to work. It is a very inhospitable environment. We’re working physically demanding jobs in incredibly poor conditions. We’re all suffering from some amount of heat exhaustion, cramps, headaches, muscle weakness, and lack of focus. Our morale is incredibly low. We’ve also limited our shifts to 4-hours at a time to alleviate some of the negative physical and emotional impacts of the heat. So why am I telling you all this? Because it’s had a direct, measurable, negative financial impact on our organization. Even if the AC is fixed by the time I’ve finished writing this, we’ve already lost revenue, we’ve had to cancel all classes and refund tickets, and lost the hours and hours of planning time that went into all the classes that we’ve had to cancel. We’re also paying our staff based on their normal schedules for as long as we can, because it’s just the right thing to do. But we won’t be able to do that much longer without your help and an end to this HVAC nightmare.  If you have the resources available, please consider a tax deductible financial donation to help keep this valued community resource afloat. If you’d like to help in other ways, please share this with your friends, colleagues, neighbors, quilt guilds, etc and/or on your social media accounts. Include a personal note about why the 757 Creative ReUse Center is so important to you and the community. If you’d like to take it one step further, feel free to contact your <a href="https://www.norfolk.gov/200/City-Council" target="_blank">Norfolk City Council representative</a>. Let them know that your favorite non-profit is struggling to stay afloat because of ongoing HVAC problems in a city owned property and ask what they plan on doing to help.  Our sincerest thank you goes out to each and every one of you for your continued support over the past six years. We absolutely would not be able to do what we do without your help. We’re hoping to be around for many more years to come and it’s pretty clear that it’s time to start looking for our next home. We knew this time would come, eventually. We just didn’t think it would be the HVAC that would send us packing.

757 Creative Reuse Center

Help Support our Staff This Summer

You'll receive a tax receipt for making a donation.