Former Oaklawn strip club converted to thrift shop for church ministry

About 40 prom dresses hang where once bar patrons got rowdy.

Piles of used clothes lie where cooks served up greasy pub grub.

And waffle makers sit where customers used to watch dancers.

His Helping Hands has effectively converted the old Oaklawn strip club Teddy Bear’s, which in recent years has been besieged by arson, into a thrift store to benefit its ministries.

“We don’t need our children growing up next to gentlemen’s clubs – we need them growing up with God,” said Justin Thelen, who was hired by the charity to oversee the store.

The building at 4858 S. Clifton was struck by multiple arsons in its twilight years of existence as a strip club. A former employee was arrested in connection with the fires, which were set in June 2013.

Paul Dohm, executive director of His Helping Hands, said the ministry – an outreach of Central Christian Church in east Wichita – got a letter in the mail saying the seller of Teddy Bear’s wanted to donate it.

“We had to think about that one, if we wanted to do it,” Dohm said. “It was a total, total wreck. People had come in and stolen everything out of it. All the copper was gone, all the wiring gone.”

Thelen and a group of volunteers with the organization began gutting the building in September. Graffiti has been painted over, the treeline has been removed, and even the beer delivery chute has been filled up with concrete.

The only remnant of the old club is a slightly smudged mirror that stayed in the bathroom.

“It really is quite a transformation of that building,” Dohm said. “It’s kind of indicative of what we’re trying to do with people, too – to help them transform their lives by helping them with their physical needs and their spiritual questions, too.”

Everything in the building was donated by various local agencies – ceiling tiles, an air-conditioning unit, carpeting and, of course, the knickknacks lining the shelves.

Thelen said he expects the thrift store, which will be called Oaklawn Clothes ‘N Stuff, to be a staple in the low-income area.

“They need a good staple in the community – not only a thrift store to help them have affordable clothing but also a good ministry outreach,” Thelen said. “We can have people in the community that need to have counseling or just to be able to talk. We’ll be able to talk to them and give them prayer.”

The store will be almost entirely staffed by volunteers. Thelen is the only employee at the store so far, Dohm said.

All proceeds from sales at the store will go to support the charity’s Fresh Hope program, which aims to help single mothers get out of poverty.

Fresh Hope was started in the summer of 2013. Since then, 178 women have graduated from the program, which provides each woman with a mentor to help “get them out of the predicament they’re in,” Dohm said.

“These ladies are single; a lot are coming out of domestic violence,” Dohm said. “They just need some encouragement and need to connect some of these dots.”

His Helping Hands has a set amount of funding to sustain the program for a few years, but as that money dwindles, the thrift store will provide funding, Dohm said.

His Helping Hands is working extensively with Countryside Christian Church to provide items and labor for the thrift store, Thelen said. The church held a donation drive for the store just this weekend, he said.

Jerry Willhite, who serves as pastor at Lighthouse Community Church in Oaklawn, said he is glad to see Teddy Bear’s go. He has been “trying to pray that place out of here for years,” he said.

“Just the culture of the community was influenced over the years by those places,” Willhite said, referring to two other adult establishments in Oaklawn that have since been shuttered – X-Citement Video and the Silhouette Club.

“It’s very helpful. I don’t think places that bring in that lifestyle are helpful to the families in Oaklawn. They don’t help families – they tear down families.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Former Oaklawn strip club converted to thrift shop for church ministry."