Goodwill Location to Open in Lehigh January 17

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Jan. 10, 2014 - PRLog -- Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, Inc. is celebrating the grand opening of the Goodwill Retail & Donation Center in Lehigh Acres on January 17, 2014.  The store, which is located at 2825 Lee Boulevard, in Lehigh, will open its doors for business at 9:00 a.m., immediately following an 8:45 a.m. ribbon cutting.

“We are committed to serving the Lehigh community,” says Goodwill Vice President of Operations Robert Randall. “We are excited for this expansion.”

The store, which created 24 new jobs for the company, will offer over 13,000 square feet of retail space. The previous Goodwill store in Lehigh only offered about 3,000 square feet. The store will also have a Job-Link Center, which will open at a later date, which will assist people with everything from resume creation to job placement. The Goodwill Retail & Donation Center also features a drive-up donation drop-off, making donating to the organization more convenient. Sustainability was also important during the planning process.

“We wanted this location to really feature green initiatives both inside and out,” says Jennifer Nelson, Goodwill’s senior director of sustainability. “The store has low flow toilets that will save a total of around 25,000 gallons of water per year. We installed occupancy sensors for lighting; we used native plants indigenous to Florida for landscape and are utilizing rain collection barrels to irrigate the landscaping.”

Attendees of the opening weekend (January 17-19) can enter for a chance to win an iPod Nano. A total of three winners will be chosen.

Goodwill Industries of Southwest Florida, Inc. provides life-changing opportunities to people with disabilities and disadvantages.  Revenue generated at Goodwill’s 29 Retail & Donation Centers supports Job-Link centers, income-sensitive housing for senior citizens and people with disabilities, the SWFL MicroEnterprise project, the L.I.F.E. Academy charter school, and other programs.  For store locations and more information about Goodwill’s mission visit www.goodwillswfl.org.