Local nonprofit closing its doors during pandemic to protect volunteers

LATROBE, Pa. — With the consistent rise in COVID-19 cases in Westmoreland County, Joe Androstic had rising concerns about his volunteers working here at the Saint Vincent De Paul store in Latrobe.

“The volunteers are the assets of the store, not the building. They’re the ones that make it work,” said Androstic, president of the store.

Even with the plexiglass up and sanitizing station in place, he didn’t want to put anyone at risk.

“If they were to contract that because I kept the store open, that was a major concern for me,” Androstic said.

Greensburg, Monessen, Jeannette and Kittanning are all open, but stores in Latrobe, Seward, Apollo, Uniontown and Indiana have closed up after opening up briefly in September.

“We were closed back in March for a two week period to see where we were going with this. Now that 2 week period ended up being 6 months for us,” Androstic said.

Because it’s closed, that means they’re not accepting or processing donations at the store. People who may be cleaning out from Christmas are encouraged to use one of the charity’s 100 donation drop off boxes found throughout the region.

“And going forward, we’ll just reevaluate before we attempt to open where we are at that time,” Androstic said.

Every location but one in the Greensburg district is on an all volunteer basis. This one will remain closed until at least February.

New study suggests COVID-19 could make it harder for people to have children

Cox Media Group