Imagine walking down the canned-goods aisle at the supermarket and overhearing the conversation on the other side of the shelf: “Say, you’re the pastor with the clothes, aren’t you?”

Pastor Moira Finley has been known to field that inquiry on a trip to the grocery store in tiny Cecil, Wisc. (population 400, “give or take,” she says).

Finley is pastor of St. John’s UCC in Cecil and Trinity UCC in Shiocton, 22 miles away, and oversees the hugely successful Cecil Community Clothes Closet operation at St. John’s.

“We don’t know where the clothes come from –– it’s definitely a loaves-and-fishes sort of thing,” says Finley, whose St. John’s congregation numbers about 80. “We put out the clothes and people take what we think are tremendous quantities. And then the next time, we still have more.”

Donations are carefully hand sorted, and overly used items are discarded. Twice a month, the Closet opens at the church. Whether it’s a nice shirt for a job interviewee, steel-toed boots for a construction worker, or a soft, stuffed animal for a child, the Closet meets many and various needs.

For shoppers’ convenience, the Closet is always open on a day when the food pantry at nearby St. Martin’s Roman Catholic Church is open.

“Last Christmas, a man came in with his daughter,” recalls Finley. “She couldn’t have been more than 9 months old, no shoes, no socks, no coat. We’re talking Wisconsin in the winter here. I zipped her into a new coat that she’ll be able to grow into.”

Another shopper couldn’t find the right size underwear for her daughter, who was in the midst of potty-training. “So I went to the store and bought some for her,” says Finley, who made a heartwarming discovery when she delivered the goods. “They had nine people living in the house. Some friends who didn’t have a home were living with them, and they had rescued a puppy. And they asked me to help them decorate their Christmas tree.”

Closet doors first opened in summer 2008 after St. John’s member Bonnie Young posed a question: “Did you know the cost of things at Goodwill is going up and up and up?” Finley was on the same wavelength. “Most of us have way too many clothes in our closets anyway,” she said.

Young then won $1,000 for the Closet as the Shawano Area Community Foundation’s “Volunteer of the Year.” In addition, a request to the UCC’s Wisconsin Conference brought in $1,000 from the UCC’s Our Church’s Wider Mission. Other donations arrived, including one from a local builder –– a well-insulated storage shed with well-laid-out shelves and a skylight.

Finley says the Closet is now on the Red Cross’ radar, as well as that of social services and others in touch with people in need.

 “We did a school supply drive this past fall and got about $300, which was remarkable,” she says. “And we provided Christmas gifts for 82 children.”

After an initial six-month, “is-this-really-going-to-take-off?” period, Finley had her answer. “It just exploded,” she says. “People who were at first a little unsure about our ministry have really come to embrace it, have brought donations, have been excited about increasing our visibility in the community.”