It started with a question
What does it take for a small town to thrive? That question, and a book called 13 Ways to Kill Your Community by Doug Griffiths, got a few people in Erickson thinking. What if a thrift store could keep money circulating close to home, keep good things out of the landfill, and turn every sale into support for local groups?
A leap of faith
In 2019, a founding Board of Directors formed SCORE Store Inc. as a non-profit and took on 41 Main Street. Reghan Langston, a computer programmer who had moved from Winnipeg and knew almost no one in town, became the store’s first manager. Looking back, she called it “a huge leap of faith.”
Over the winter of 2020, volunteers renovated, built shelves and held open houses to collect donations. By spring the store was full and nearly ready, and then COVID-19 arrived. The doors finally opened on June 9, 2020, with a handful of shoppers at a time and donations set aside for three days before they went out on the floor.
Named for five communities
SCORE stands for Sandy Lake, Clear Lake, Onanole, Rolling River First Nation and Erickson. Prices are kept low, and all profits go back into those communities: endowment funds, the curling club, school trips, a daycare playground, the food bank and much more.
Dreaming bigger at Leda Lake
By 2021 the store was ready for something bigger: a park on the shore of Leda Lake at the end of Main Street. Years of planning, grant-writing and volunteer work later, Leda Lake Eco Park has trails, a boardwalk and dock, a pump track and a zip line. See the park.
Still going strong
More than five years on, volunteers give over 175 hours a month. In 2026 the store opened a Food Rescue mini mart, and after six and a half years Reghan handed the store over to Amy Potten, our new Store Manager.
