John Firestone-Thompson was raised by his maternal grandparents in Martha’s Vineyard, an Atlantic island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As a boy, before heading back to boarding school for the week, he had one Sunday task: select and lay out the ensembles his grandmother would wear Monday through Friday — tops, bottoms, shoes, accessories. “I was sort of her stylist,” he says, smiling. “And she didn’t pay me a thing!”
That innate fashion sense followed Firestone-Thompson into adulthood. As we sit chatting in the Revivals Palm Springs warehouse, he’s sporting a Wil Stiles short-sleeved shirt, burgundy pants, and perfectly shined, burgundy lace-up shoes. “I’ve become less stylish in my seventies,” says the man who will turn 72 in August. “Now it’s more age-appropriate.”
When Firestone-Thompson retired as deputy director at the Social Security Administration and relocated to the desert in 2011 with his husband, Robert, a former senior IT executive, he made a beeline for Revivals. “Having had a very high-pressure job for years, and knowing no one here, someone suggested I volunteer,” he remembers, adding he started as a cashier. “I’ve met great people and made great friends. It keeps me busy and keeps my husband sane.”
It should surprise no one that Firestone-Thompson was quickly promoted, and that he now not only sorts and prices clothing for all three stores (Palm Springs, Cathedral City, and Palm Desert) but also ensures everything is expertly laid out on their respective sales floors. He’s logged more than 7,100 hours so far!
The other hot spot Firestone-Thompson discovered soon after his Palm Springs arrival was the Wil Stiles boutique on Palm Canyon Drive. He became a regular. One day in 2019, when he was browsing the racks, Stiles told him he had something he thought would fit Firestone-Thompson to a T.
“Wil brought out a shirt he had in a weird storage area in the store,” Firestone-Thompson recalls. “He said, ‘Just take it. It’s yours. I have a whole bunch of this stuff I’m not selling.’ So, I said, ‘Well, donate it all to Revivals!’ And that’s how this started.”
To be clear, Stiles and his life and business partner, Molly Bondhus, had made small anonymous contributions of inventory to Revivals every year since opening their shop in 2009. But — at Firestone-Thompson’s urging — the couple went big. And they hitched their brand name to the gift. “We were still uncomfortable with the public attribution,” maintains Bondhus, “but philanthropist extraordinaire Terri Ketover convinced us it was good for the cause.”
What many don’t know is that Stiles and Bondhus have a longtime personal connection to DAP Health’s chain of thrift stores. “We fell in love with Revivals on our first visit in 2004 and walked out with a 5-by-10-foot painting we had absolutely no place for,” reveals Bondhus. “We still have it, and it’s still one of our favorite pieces. Revivals has that element of surprise — you never know what you’ll find!”
“This year’s donation is gigantic,” says Firestone-Thompson. “It has a retail value that nears $575,000.” That makes it the largest assortment ever donated by the couple to Revivals.
Each of the 3,792 never-worn articles will be sold at a deep discount. “We have dresses that range in retail from $139 to $469,” says Firestone-Thompson. “We’re selling them for $35, $40, and a few for $50. Obviously, they’re all beautiful. We have amazing tops, skirts, some jackets, and stunning robes. And our men’s collection is quite spectacular. Short-sleeved and long-sleeved shirts, jackets, pants, shorts, jeans, sweaters, woven polos, and regular polos. I know I’m forgetting something.”
On the women’s side, designers represented include Samuel Dong, Damee, Emily and Fin, Petit Pois, THML, Isle, and IC Collection. For men’s, there’s Merc, Eight X, Fred Perry, J. Lindeberg, Paisley & Gray, Leonardi, BM, Retro Paris, and Giovanni Testi.
Stiles says the global mix of pieces can take anyone from casual desert flair to fun, high-end cocktail hour. Firestone-Thompson is especially excited that sizing runs the gamut from extra small to 2XL.
“We will have men’s and women’s at Palm Springs and Palm Desert, and men’s only in Cathedral City,” he reveals, adding there’s no way all the thousands of items can be displayed at once. That means early birds will not be the only ones to get the wardrobe. “Still, I guarantee we’ll have a line out front of all three stores when we kick off this special event at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 2.”
“There are no words to appropriately describe our gratitude to Wil and Molly for this year’s tremendously generous gift,” says Revivals Chief of Retail Dane Koch. “But more than that, we are deeply grateful for this enduring partnership, which has truly evolved into a friendship. And it’s not just our organization that benefits, but our customers and our patients.”
“I’m not going to try to guess how much Revivals and DAP Health are going to make from this sale,” says Firestone-Thompson, “because it always varies. But they’re going to make a lot of money.”
“John has been an incredible partner for years,” says Bondhus. “His dedication to Revivals — and the amount of volunteer time he’s given — is really something special.”
“What people don’t always see is the scale of what he and his volunteer team manage,” says Stiles. “Processing this volume of donations takes an extraordinary amount of coordination, and they do it seamlessly. It’s genuinely impressive.”
The admiration flows both ways. “They are just wonderful, wonderful people,” says Firestone-Thompson of the philanthropic pair. “This, to me, is just overwhelming generosity. It’s such an amazing thing to do. And now you’re getting me teared up. Don’t do that!”
Firestone-Thompson lets out a chuckle, chokes back tears. “I’m so proud and happy that my friends keep doing this. The spotlight really should be on them — Wil and Molly. They are the ones who deserve it. I just beg for and process their donation. They are the givers.”
