A new thrift store and prayer room will open on Highway 160 in Theodosia, next to Dollar General, Friday, Aug. 16, thanks to the efforts of the Tailgate Ministries, a project that began in 2020 by Isabella residents Arthur and Norma Fortin. The store and prayer room will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
“Ever since the Treasure Gallery shut down, we’ve thought the town needed something for the folks who are financially strapped,” Tailgate Ministries’ founder Arthur Fortin told the Times recently. All funds made from the store will be reinvested into the ministry’s efforts, Fortin says. Clothing articles will be sold for $1 per item, unless otherwise marked, they say.
The Fortins purchased the large building on Highway 160 in Theodosia that had been vacant for the last 12 years. The large plate glass windows in the front contribute to a nice storefront, and the building includes several rooms, bathrooms, a full kitchen and a full basement for storage that may be utilized for different ministry work in the future. The Fortins say a 2,400 square foot portion of the building will be utilized for the thrift store, and a 1,000 square foot portion will be used for the prayer room.
“We want to thank everyone who has been here helping us. We’ve had volunteers helping paint, and we’ve had some providing a little financial assistance along the way,” Norma said. “We appreciate each and every one of them.”
The thrift store is now accepting donations, but staff members ask that those who would like to donate call Arthur ahead of time to make sure the donated items are brought when a Tailgate Ministries member can be there to receive it. Call Fortin at 417-712-3975 to arrange drop off.
The prayer room located inside the building will include a space where someone is available to visit with for residents who would like to drop in to talk through a hard time, pray or just sit and visit.
Church services
The group is also holding weekly church services at 6 p.m. every Tuesday night. Fortin clarified they do not want to compete with any other church in the area for members. Therefore, they’ve settled on meeting Tuesday nights when other churches are not holding services and hope to attract community members who don’t already have a home church. The first church service will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 20.
The Tailgate Ministries is also hosting a meeting for church leadership in the area, and invite leaders from all area churches to come visit at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19.
More about Tailgate Ministries
Arthur says the Tailgate Ministries charity was born when God brought together the lives of a few souls who were in the deepest trenches of heartache. Arthur and his wife Norma were two of those people.
The couple had moved to Isabella in 2016 and purchased a resort after the unexpected death of their 33-year-old son Shane, which came at the same time as their daughter was moving away for college.
Hoping the change of scenery would help them heal from the pain, the Fortins threw themselves into the business and their life in the Ozarks. But no matter what they did, there was no way to close the gaping wound brought forth from losing a child.
“When he died, I just carried an emptiness around for six years,” Fortin said. “…right up until God put a special young lady in our lives.”
That young lady, 33-year-old Kira Dunn, was first introduced to their lives in October 2020, when Arthur saw her at an area resort while he was picking up a boy there to go fishing. Arthur and Kira began chatting, which turned into a deep conversation about the challenges they each were facing: Fortin losing his son and Kira losing her way in life. A few days later, Kira came to the resort the Fortins owned and asked if they were hiring.
“Were we looking for an employee? No. But after hearing her heart-wrenching battles, we decided to help by giving her a job,” Fortin told the Times when talking about the program a couple years ago. “She helped us paint the resort cabins and conduct normal resort maintenance.”
Kira, who was a similar age as their son, immediately found a way into the Fortins’ hearts. They took her under their wing and began helping her plan for her future. They helped her get her high school diploma and tried to help her take the next steps to find a career she’d love. She told the Fortins she just wanted to help people.
So, with that in mind, Arthur and Kira began delivering boxes of food to those who needed it in the community. It didn’t take long for their list to grow to 10 or more people who needed help. Through the deliveries, they met a lot of neighbors and community members and got to know them. Those friendships led to a level of trust that allowed the food recipients to reveal other desperate needs they had. Arthur and Kira helped in those ways too when they could.
“We were fixing water lines in the dead of winter, fixing people’s vehicles so they could go to church, getting them firewood… if they needed it and we could provide it, we did it,” he said.
Most of the help was done without payment from people with no financial means of hiring someone for those jobs. But the feeling they got from helping people was payment enough.
They continued to do what they could, keeping their hearts open to where God led them.
“Then all at once, I guess God shifted gears and said we were supposed to be carpenters,” Fortin said. “We’ve done a lot of carpentry work ever since.”
Fortin’s background in construction and tenacity derived from a career in the Air Force paired with Kira’s heart for service was just the fuel needed to make a huge impact on the community.
It was at that time that the Tailgate Ministry began.
The pair’s first project was for a community member who they’d brought food to through the winter. The woman was living in a storage shed-type cabin that had been installed on a piece of property and hadn’t been finished out.
“The cabin was installed and tied down, and that was it. There was no bathroom, no shower, no sink. She was roughing it there for awhile,” he said. Arthur and Kira insulated the structure and donated a heater immediately, then finished out the cabin into adequate living quarters with indoor plumbing, bathroom and other necessities.
They continued in that effort as much as they could for months. Through the process of helping others, the Fortins and Kira became close.
Since that time, the Tailgate Ministry has developed into quite the busy endeavor. Arthur and Kira are now joined by another worker, Stormie Brown, who joined the Tailgate Ministries two years ago after experiencing her own devastating life circumstances when her house burned down in 2021.
Fortin says he pays Kira and Stormie a good salary for the work they complete, giving them both a steady job and a source of income to provide for their children. They are also continually learning construction skills that they will be able to use in a future career if they choose.
Through the effort, they’ve been able to buy and renovate a home for Kira and her kids, and they’ve recently just completed building a house for Stormie and her children.
The Tailgate Ministries trio take on both traditional construction jobs for those who can pay for their services and donated labor for those in desperate need of something and are often not able to pay anything.
“It’s a balancing act. You have to keep some paying jobs to keep enough money for the ones that aren’t,” he said.
The new thrift store, prayer room and church are located at 5990 Highway 160, Theodosia. To find out more about Tailgate Ministries or the thrift store and prayer room, contact Arthur Fortin at 417-712-3975.