OXFORD — The Pink Feather Foundation has secured an operations center for the winter.

The non-profit group, dedicated to providing free clothing to at risk students in the Oxford Hills and Poland-based school districts is moving all of inventory to 85 Pleasant Street in Oxford.

The three-story building served as Oxford’s high school for about 100 years before it became Oxford’s municipal headquarters between 1998 and 2022.

Chris Davis, who purchased the old town office with his partner Brian Landis in 2023, recently connected with PFF Director Jen Kyllonen through a mutual friend. The two were able to reach an agreement for a temporary lease of the building’s top floor.

The organization has been searching for a new facility since late summer when its currently location on Aldrich Street in Norway was sold. PFF was given a moving deadline of Dec. 31.

The building had been listed for sale, but Davis and Landis took it off the market to support PFF’s need for space through the winter.

Kyllonen is relieved PFF’s mission can continue; she told the Advertiser Democrat last month that if a new site could not be secured in a matter of weeks it would have to cease fulfilling orders for area youth in need of clothing this week.

Instead, volunteers are moving its racks and aisles of inventory to Oxford, courtesy of box trucks supplied by local businesses Bearfoot Realty and Twin Town Homes of Oxford and Maine Machine Products Co. in South Paris. Another Oxford company, Ed Thayer Trucking, is providing a storage trailer.

“We will occupy about 3000 square feet,” Kyllonen said.  “With an open-term lease based on the sale of the building. We should be good to get through this school year.

“It will change our operations. This location is heated only to keep the pipes from freezing, so around the temperature is set at about 52.  But we will bundle up and be able to continue to fill orders.”

Moving day is this Sunday, with volunteers starting at 10 Aldrich Street in Norway at 9 a.m.

By 10 a.m. another shift of helpers will report to 85 Pleasant Street in Oxford to receive and move all the merchandise into PFF’s new home.

“Our racks are seven feet tall and have multiple tiers of clothes that have to stay in catalog order and clean,” she said. “We will need lots of hands on deck (in Oxford). There are 34 steps to the top and about 14,000 items to get up there, along with packaging supplies!”

For the time being PFF is not accepting clothing donations, although financial contributions will be welcomed.

“We are working on a forever home and hope to have more information on that soon,” Kyllonen continued.  “We may develop some pop-up volunteer opportunities at another location to keep inventory coming in, but we have not worked out a plan for this yet.”

Kyllonen expects Sunday to include about 50 volunteers pitching in at one location or the other, as well as on the road.

“Our helpers are worth their weight in gold,” she said. “Days like this ahead are truly how Pink Feather started back in 2011. The community coming together, making a difference together.”