Leo and the lamps

When Leo Clarke started working at the Harrisonburg Gift & Thrift shop in Virginia, he didn’t expect to fall in love with fixing broken electronics — or to end up creating quirky, one-of-a-kind lamps out of baby dolls, guitars and globes. But one thing led to another — and now he’s turned his curiosity and creativity into a repurposing passion that’s lighting up the shop. 

Leo’s journey from an MCC Thrift customer to employee wasn’t traditional. He was once a professional ballet dancer, starting training at just 11 years old. By 15, he had moved from Virginia to Washington, D.C. to attend a Russian-style ballet boarding school and danced with the Opera Nova in Poland from 2011 to 2016. There, he met and married his wife, Gosia.

After returning to Virginia and freelancing as a dancer, the pandemic led Leo to explore new career options including becoming a rock climbing instructor. In 2024, with encouragement from his wife, Leo applied for a job at Harrisonburg Gift & Thrift and was hired. He now works as the team lead for electronics, toys and office.

“I started as a customer, and I loved it so much that I started working here,” he says. Now, he manages two teams of staff and volunteers, supporting the day-to-day operations and helping things run smoothly. “A lot of the people I work with say they want to get me a bell, so they know where I am ’cause I’m just running around all the time,” he laughs.

What truly sets Leo’s work apart is what he’s doing between all the running: tinkering, learning and repurposing discarded items into something completely new.

It all started with lamps. “It was having access to so many parts and thinking, ‘Hey, what if, instead of just scrapping this, we start repurposing some of those components?’” he explains. About two or three months into the job, after settling into his workflow, Leo began experimenting, turning broken items into creative new pieces. His first lamp was made of a baby doll with missing arms. “I replaced her arms with lightbulbs and set her up on a base,” he says. 

“I realized pretty quickly that pretty much anything you can put a hole in, you can turn into a lamp. And the doors blew wide open,” Leo says.

Since then, he’s made over ten lamps, transforming items like damaged guitars, globes and even a Model T ignition coil into fully functional light fixtures. “It’s kind of become a thing

around the store now,” he laughs. “If someone has something and they’re not sure how they’re going to sell it or prepare it for the floor, they’ll say ‘Oh, just give it to Leo. He’ll turn it into a lamp.’”

Leo works on this creative process with his associate, Emerson Brubacher. “The more we do this kind of project, the more ways we find to do it, and our confidence grows,” he says.

They also love getting involved in the shop’s annual upcycle competition. Their most recent entry was a working guitar amplifier made from salvaged parts of 1950s record players. “It looks a little messy, but it works really well. It’s a little Frankenstein guitar amp.” 

Not every custom lamp creation makes it to the sales floor, including a headless doll lamp. “I finally pushed the envelope far enough where one wasn’t sellable because it was just a little too creepy,” he says.

But there are more often winning creations — like a standing lamp he made from a heavily damaged guitar, using mother of pearl shirt buttons as tuning pegs. “It turned out exactly as intended,” he says proudly. 

Inspiration strikes on the spot, depending on what’s come through donations that day. “Whatever lights the lightbulb, pun very much intended,” he says.

So, what makes MCC Thrift so special to him? “The potential,” he says. “[The volunteers and staff] continue to meet their goals and then strive to see where they can go next. There’s an awareness that there’s always more that can be done and a willingness to seek that out and do it together.”

As for Leo, the best part of getting to tinker, learn and create is, “It’s mostly just very fun,” he says. For anyone walking through the doors of MCC Thrift in Harrisonburg, Leo’s one-of-a-kind lamps might just be the bright spot they didn’t know they needed.