Menai Salvos - a store with a difference

New Shire Salvos Community Engagement Coordinator Michelle Wheatley (left) with Menai Salvos store manager Susil DeSilva (centre) and Belinda Stamos. 

Sutherland Shire locals in southern Sydney may have noticed something a bit different about the recently re-opened Menai Salvos Store. The difference wears signature red sneakers, has a huge smile and an even bigger heart. Meet Michelle Wheatley, The Salvation Army’s newest Community Engagement Coordinator!

Greeting people with a big smile and a warm welcome when they enter the Salvos Store in Menai isn’t Michelle’s only gig. She’s tasked with living out The Salvation Army’s four mission pillars - Caring for People; Working for Justice; Building Healthy Communities; and Creating Faith Pathways – both within the store setting and in the wider community of Menai. She’s one of several new local Salvation Army community workers who base themselves at Salvos Store locations throughout the Sutherland Shire.

“I’m here to come alongside people in our community,” Michelle says. “To chat to people who are lonely, to refer people to services if they are in need.”

“Everyone’s important, everyone deserves to feel loved and valued and my role is to give people a sense of community so that they feel like they’re part of something, and to know that someone loves and cares about them.”

With Salvos Stores often the only point of contact members of our communities have with The Salvation Army, it makes sense to locate mission at the heart of the action. Michelle will act as a link in the chain between people in the community and the range of Salvation Army services available within the local area.

“I am a facilitator for The Salvation Army’s Positive Lifestyle Program so I can come alongside people who want to take that journey,” she says. “I’m also studying a Certificate IV in Community Services and I’ve completed my Mental Health First Aid course.”

After an extended closure throughout COVID-19, Menai Salvos Store re-opened earlier this year with a new manager. Soon after that, Michelle joined the team – employed by Shire Salvos – but spending much of her time working from the Salvos Store. She has also been getting to know business owners in the local area and investing in ministry at the local shopping centre.

To celebrate the changes at the store, Shire Salvos has organised a free BBQ on November 12 at Menai Salvos Store. All are welcome to pop in, meet the new team and have a browse in-store.