Hollister
– Retirement hasn’t slowed Charlene Petersen or other volunteers
at the Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital thrift shop.
”
All of our girls are later in life … but they put in a hard
day’s work,
”
said Petersen, 68.
Hollister – Retirement hasn’t slowed Charlene Petersen or other volunteers at the Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital thrift shop.
“All of our girls are later in life … but they put in a hard day’s work,” said Petersen, 68.
That work isn’t limited to manning the cash register, either. Volunteers have to fix electrical appliances, wash clothes and do whatever else it takes to ensure donations are in salable condition.
Petersen, who manages the thrift shop on Tuesdays, said all that work has paid off to the order of more than $100,000 in profits per year. Among other things, that money goes toward new hospital equipment, scholarships and special customer service training for hospital management, Hazel Hawkins spokeswoman Frankie Valent-Arballo said.
“Our auxiliary and volunteers are a phenomenal group,” Valent-Arballo said. “Without them, the hospital would not be what it is … I haven’t worked with (Charlene), but I know that she’s the backbone of the thrift store.”
Petersen has worked at the store for 17 years. Even before she started volunteering, she regularly visited friends at the store, and they eventually pulled her into helping out, too.
“When you retire … you want something you can give to your community,” she said.
The thrift store, which sells everything from kitchen appliances to old records, is open to customers on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9am to 2:30pm. Petersen said the store has changed dramatically since she first volunteered. In the beginning, there was nothing more than a storage room full of items that Petersen and others dragged into the hospital parking lot for sales.
“If it rained, we’d have to bring everything back inside,” she said.
Due to its success, the store eventually moved into a mobile trailer and on Saturday will open at its new location at 898 San Benito St. Petersen said she’s nervous about the new spot because there isn’t much parking and some of the new neighbors may not be pleased if donations start piling up outside.
So what motivated her to stay involved for nearly two decades? It’s the same thing that pulled her in – the friendships, she said.
“You make so many friends,” she said. “We know all of our customers on Tuesday.”
