Closet Share in Sudbury closed due to flooding

Closet Share in Sudbury, a non-profit that provides free clothing to the community through donations, sustained significant flooding over the weekend and will be closed for quite some time.

Owner and founder Melissa Porter said she walked into the building Monday morning to the sound of water running. It emerged later that they had been victims of a break-and-enter.

“There was just water pouring everywhere,” Porter said.

“I don’t know how long it was happening for, so it could have been all weekend.”

She checked the security cameras to find that they had been off since 7 p.m. Feb. 6.

“So I think they got water damage.”

Sudbury police confirmed to CTV News that a break-and-enter was reported at the location and likely occurred between Friday evening and Monday morning.

“The incident was reported by another tenant of the building, however it was determined that the water damage (burst/damaged pipe) affected the basement and main levels of the building,” said police spokesperson Kaitlyn Dunn.

‘It really breaks my heart’

Porter said she didn’t want to speculate whether the water damage is connected to the break-in.

“But it really breaks my heart because that’s what I do -- I’m here to help people, right?” she said.

“I think that if you just ask people for help instead of doing something this detrimental, then at the end of the day, there’s always going to be someone there to help you.”

In addition to the latest setback, Porter said they deal with people breaking into their clothing donation bins every week.

“It’s been a very tough time,” she said.

“We gained access to the gym and now we’re losing the gym. So that was our access to our revenue, our courses, our classes. So all that’s been shut down.”

They’re also losing the intern who had been running the website.

“It’s just been a very big, sloppy road that you just one day hope that everything falls into place,” Porter said.

“But then this was just like the cherry on top.”

The closure affects more than 100 volunteers. Porter said an insurance claim has been filed and she hopes to rebuild, no matter how hard it is going to be.