Volunteers

Good Cheer now has a volunteer roster of more than 470 people, but we are always happy to welcome more into the fold. If you can donate even an hour or two per week, we would love to have you join us! If you are interested, come on in and speak with Volunteer Coordinator Carol Ann.

Featured Volunteer: Ula Lewis (Good Cheer's "Coupon Lady")

Don’t let Ula Lewis see you throw away a coupon. She knows their real value.

Lewis is a special kind of volunteer for Good Cheer Food Bank. She’s a coupon-clipper, organizer and frugal shopper who saves Good Cheer Food Bank hundreds of dollars a month by using coupons for items purchased at chain stores offering double and triple coupon redemptions.

As the mother of 11 children, Lewis had to watch her food budget at home and did so, partly by clipping coupons.

This past July, she decided to put her talent to work for Good Cheer by organizing coupons that Good Cheer had on hand and then adding to them. With the help of a small circle of friends, the coupon collection began to grow; so much so that Lewis invested in large plastic bins to keep all the coupons well filed.

Just about weekly, she and her friend Iola Helland go shopping on the mainland, mostly at Albertsons and Fred Meyer stores.

“I tell the stores that I am shopping for Good Cheer Food Bank, and that I am using coupons and will be buying sale items,” she said. “Sometimes I phone ahead and they can get in more of an item and hold it back for me.”

She always tries to shop more than one location of each store so that she doesn’t wipe any one store out of any products.

A recent example of her work is boxes of name brand cereal on the shelves at the Food Bank.
“They were marked $4.89 a box,” Lewis said. “But I watched the ads and found then on sale for $1.88 a box. I had a dollar off coupon for each box. So I got that cereal at 88 cents a box.” Another find was Kraft salad dressing at 37 cents a bottle, once the coupon was applied.

Lewis also will get certificates from some stores for $25 off her next purchases because of the quantity of groceries she buys, then uses them on her next shopping trip for Good Cheer.

She can spend up to 30 hours a week at her coupon and shopping work for Good Cheer, on top of volunteering at the Food Bank.

“I appreciate Ula’s willingness to devote time not only for the coupon clipping and shopping, but also here at the Food Bank,” says Food Bank Manager Damien Cortez. “She comes in regularly just to see if we need help and will give up her entire day just because she see’s the need. I honestly do not know what we would have done without her this week!”

“We love what Ula is doing for us,” said Kathy McLaughlin. “It is something many in the community had encouraged us to do. It was so nice when someone said I will do it for you!”

Lewis had a time in her life when she was on food stamps, so she understands the value of help.

“I learned then that you can use coupons with food stamps,” she said. “I figured if someone was going to give me money for food, I would spend it the most economically that I could.”

Helping others now is a way of paying back, she said.

Anyone wanting to give coupons to Lewis for her project can bring them to Good Cheer. “I’m after every coupon I can find,” she said. “I can use just about every coupon there is.”

Previously Featured Volunteer: John Ball

Good Cheer volunteer John Ball has a warning for everyone: “When Kathy McLaughlin calls and wants to take you to breakfast, be wary.”

That’s exactly what happened recently.When Kathy showed up at 7 a.m. at his door, in a dress, he knew something was up, but he didn’t really get worried until she didn’t turn to go to Mike’s or to Neal’s Clover Patch, but instead told him they were going to Useless Bay County Club.

“There I was in my 50-cent Good Cheer shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals and everyone else was in dresses and business suits,” Ball said. “That’s when I asked ‘Why am I here again?”

Unbeknownst to Ball, he was being honored by the South Whidbey Rotary Club for his more than 21 years of volunteer work at Good Cheer. A longtime resident of South Whidbey, Ball was one of several community volunteers from various charitable organizations to receive this year’s Rotary Community Recognition awards.

“I nominated John because he has been a Good Cheer volunteer since 1988,” said McLaughlin. “His expertise and strong commitment to service are exceptional.”

Already this year, Ball has given 782 hours of volunteer service to Good Cheer.

His main duties are to identify and research the collectibles and antiques that are donated to the thrift stores.

Having previously owned the Mad Hatter’s Old Books store that operated in Langley, Ball knows the fair market value of many of the items, and if not, knows how to research how they should be priced.

“John works diligently to determine what would be a fair price to both the customer and Good Cheer,” McLaughlin said.

Ball and Langley store manager Gail Thomas have handled the collectibles and antiques for a number of years. In that time, Ball said many “strange” items have come their way.

“I once received an 1862 Sharp Pepperbox revolver donated at Good Cheer,” he said. “I knew it was very valuable, but I wasn’t exactly sure about the dollar amount. So I researched and found a gun expert in California who sold it for us through an auction house for $900.”

More recently, some U.S. Cavalry saddlebags popped up at Good Cheer and were valued at $135. Ball found a reference to them in a history book.

“That’s what’s so interesting about this work,” he said. “It’s like a life-long treasure hunt. You never know what’s going to come in on any given day.”

Just as much fun as seeing what comes in, he said, is seeing where it goes.

“I really like it when a customer finds something they really have been wanting,” he said. “Like the day a man came in and bought a whole bunch of old 45 rpm records. He was so much in love with those records, he kept telling me ‘be very careful with them,’ as I was wrapping them for him.”

Ball is also known to be the go-to guy when nobody else can get there.

“This winter, when almost everybody was snowed in and couldn’t get to work, John made it to the Langley Thrift Store to open up every day just in case somebody needed something,” McLaughlin said.

“The patrons of Langley love John. He has a rich history here and lots of memorable stories. He is considered one of Langley’s characters, and we are truly blessed that he chose Good Cheer to be his home away from home,” she added.

Before his bookstore, Ball played professional soccer, worked at the old Rainier Brewery in Seattle, fought forest fires, and tended bar at The Dog House in Langley.

He says he gives his time to Good Cheer because he sees the good that it does in the community.

“I love the people I work with and the people who come into the thrift store. You can tell they are so glad to find a bargain, and when I’m up at the food bank, I see how the money we make at the thrift store really helps feed people who need help.

“It’s nice to know I’m are actually helping others,”says Ball, adding that the volunteer work has other returns.

“Every once in awhile, I’ll be in the store and someone will just come up to me and give me a big hug and say ‘Thank you for being here.’ That’s the real reward.”

Previously Featured Volunteer: Gail Lischeid

Just call Gail Lischeid the “Linen Lady.” She doesn’t mind at all.

After all, as a volunteer for Good Cheer, Gail spends her time in the Bayview sorting room with the linens.

“I just kind of fell into the linens,” she said. “And now they won’t let me out of them,” she joked. “But I know it’s where I belong.

“I’m six feet tall and I have long arms,” she said. “It’s no problem for me to unfold and measure those big king size sheets and bedspreads,” she said.

Lischeid has been a volunteer with Good Cheer for the past five years. A neighbor, introduced her to Good Cheer volunteer work which was then done upstairs in the Langley store.

“We worked in the sorting room, mostly with clothes, hanging them and pricing them,” she said. “When the sorting operations moved to Bayview, there was more and better display for linens.

“So I decided that I would try to get both the Langley store and the Clinton store better stocked with linens.”

That meant getting a better system for display. Lischeid began putting sheets, towels, curtains, etc. in plastic bags, marked by size and price.

“That way they stack better on the shelves at the stores and don’t end up in a wad like they sometimes use to,” she said.

With a larger area for linens at both Good Cheer thrift locations, Lischeid is on the job about three days a week for four hour stints. She can fill five to seven totes full of priced linens each time she volunteers.

“I like to give the stores a variety in each tote – some sheets, some towels, and then tablecloths, curtains and the other items that come in.” she said.

And there is no lack of linens donated to keep her busy.

“I am kind of particular about what goes out to the stores,” she said. “I make sure it’s something that is in good enough condition that I would buy it.” And if not, she finds a home for it anyway.

“Any of the towels and blankets that aren’t high quality and that wouldn’t sell in the store, we bag them up and give to WAIF for the animals,” she said. “Some of the fleece blankets and pillow cases go to the cat shelter in Freeland and some hand towels and pillow cases go to Oasis Animal Center, too.

“Recently, I’ve been pulling the sheets that are too worn and we give them to a lady here on the island who works with the island emergency preparedness program. They cut them up and use them in emergency kits for bandages.”
She also helped out a man who was getting started in the painting business by finding him some large sheets that he could use as drop cloths.

The very best – Irish linens and hand-embroidered items – are given to another volunteer who takes them home, washes them, irons them and they are placed in the boutique section of the thrift stores.

Lischeid is pleased that the changes she helped institute in the linen departments at the Thrift Stores have actually meant more sales of sheets, towels, rugs, curtains, placemats and more.

“All the linens seem to be selling at a rapid rate,” she said. “That has really got me excited about what I do because I see that I can make a difference. When we sell more, we make more for the Food Bank and that’s what this is all about.”

Sometimes she gets discouraged when there aren’t enough towels and sheets coming in.

“Last week I had only 12 good towels when the week before I had 25 to send out to the stores,” she said. “But in the thrift business, there are times like that. And I have to say that the area motels and bed and breakfast inns are very good about giving us their older items when they get new or change decorating schemes.”

Good Cheer Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin said that when linens begin to mount up she used to wonder what was up.

“Now I know it’s because Gail is on vacation,” she said. “It is remarkable how good she is at doing a job that most people dread. She truly is our Good Cheer linen lady.”

Rita Burns, Good Cheer volunteer coordinator, wonders what Good Cheer ever did before Gail.

“She’s so fast and efficient and brings a lot of fun when volunteering,” Burns said.
Lischeid also volunteers at the WAIF Cat Cottage in Freeland. And when she’s not volunteering, she travels.

“The only problem with it is that I know I’ll come back to tables full of linens calling my name,” she said.

Previously Featured Volunteers: Jean Porter and Marilyn Thomas

On any given afternoon, you might find Jean Porter sitting at her kitchen table unfolding and measuring a piece of fabric, her scissors close by.

Across the south end of Whidbey Island near Lone Lake, her long-time friend Marilyn Thomas most likely will be at the kitchen sink in her house, giving a “bath” to a slightly used Barbie Doll.

For years, the two volunteered together at Langley Good Cheer Thrift Store, but now that age and circumstances have caught up with them, they can’t. That hasn’t, however, kept them from their commitment to helping Good Cheer.

“I guess you’d just have to say Good Cheer gets in your blood and you can’t let go,” said Porter, now in her 80s.

“I started with Good Cheer in December of 1971, and except for a couple of years, I’ve been with them all of this time.”

Porter, who twice, in 1975 and 1980, was assistant manager of the Langley Good Cheer Thrift Store, is one of a very few volunteers who can brag about more than 35 years with Good Cheer. She spent many years sorting items at the thrift store and working at the cash register.

When her health no longer allowed her to work at the store, she continued to help by sorting sewing notions and measuring and bundling fabric from home. She works from her Langley home now, bundling fabric and cutting fabric squares for craft projects.

Her Good Cheer buddy Marilyn Thomas often delivers fabric to be cut and notions to be sorted and carded to Porter’s home.

In those days, they would work together in the sorting room doing just about anything and everything that needed to be done. They both liked volunteering work at the shop because they saw so many people.

“Working at the cash register, people would come in all the time and you really got to know the customers,” Thomas said. “Everybody was so friendly.”

One of the things they were known for was making quilts that were donated to the thrift store.

“I can’t begin to think how many quilts we’ve done,” said Porter.

Today, Thomas cares for a great-grandson and doesn’t work at the Langley store very often. She, however, has developed another expertise.

“I take care of the Barbie Dolls,” she said. “Whenever Barbies come in, they come home with me and I give them a bath and dress them, making sure that they look their best before they are sold.”

Sometimes Thomas is so “buried in Barbies” that the spare room in her house is filled with them.

“Right now I have a bed that is just covered in Barbies and Barbie clothes,” she said. “They seem to come in faster than I can do them.”

Both women are happy doing their part to help Good Cheer even though they aren’t able to work at the thrift store anymore.

In earlier years, both Porter and Thomas served on Good Cheer’s Board. They are amazed at how the organization has grown since those days.

“The new Food Bank is really something,” said Porter. “They have seen the need in this community grow throughout the years and they have continued to meet the need.”

Both Porter and Thomas lost their husbands and find that volunteering helps fill their time and makes them feel good. While they are busy with children and grandchildren, they always make time for Good Cheer.

They think South Whidbey Island is a great community to be a part of.

“When newcomers move here, sometimes they don’t understand why people are so helpful and friendly,” Thomas said. “They’re not sure how to take all the friendliness, but that’s just the way people are here. And that’s what I like about being here.” Ditto for Good Cheer.

“Some of the most friendly people I know are the people who work and volunteer at Good Cheer,” said Porter.

Good Cheer Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin couldn’t agree more.
“When I first started working at Good Cheer I was greeted by Marilyn and Jean. They welcomed me into the Good Cheer family. Just like true moms they taught and supported me from day one,” she said.

Previously Featured Volunteer: Cris Schrecengost

After Cris Schrecengost’s two daughters were grown and out of the house, she found herself missing the volunteer work she did with their schools’ Parent-Teacher Associations.

She also missed volunteering with good friend Kathy McLaughlin.

“I loved the PTA work and I loved doing it with Kathy,” Cris said. ‘I knew Kathy was at Good Cheer, so I thought, ‘Why not go down there and volunteer?”

It’s been about four years now, but one day a week, you’ll find Cris at the cash register at Langley’s Good Cheer Thrift Store.

“Before the Bayview (Good Cheer) site opened, I would sort and price items and occasionally work the cash register,” said Cris.

“Now that the sorting and pricing is all done at Bayview, I’m on the register full time. And that’s okay with me because I like seeing all the people and the things they buy.

“It’s just amazing to me what items pass by me,” she said. “Most of the time customers are so glad to have found neat things and special deals that we’ll talk about that.”

Cris is a working person who has a real estate and investment business. She also manages properties, and because of that she often has to travel or take care of a business property.

But she always makes time for Good Cheer.

“It’s just an important part of my life right now,” she said. “If I do have to change the day I can come in, they are always very understanding about it.”

Volunteering makes her feel she is contributing to a community that she has called home for the past 18 years.

“In the past 10 years, I’ve lost my husband and both my parents,” she said. “My friends have been so supportive of me through all that. I just love this community and I want to give back. Besides I think I get more out of volunteering than I give.”

She is very proud of the new layout of the Langley Thrift Store and thinks people can shop more successfully for clothes.

“Once in awhile, someone will bring something up to buy, and I’ll just love it,” she said. “There is just such cool stuff that sometimes I want to say ‘Oh, that’s not for sale’ just so I can buy it. But of course I don’t.”

“Cris has a wonderful sense of humor,” said Kathy McLaughlin.

“When customers interact with cashiers who are attentive and happy, their shopping experience is enhanced. Cris embodies Good Cheer’s philosophy of excellent customer service. I love having her as a Good Cheer volunteer,” she added.

When she is not working or volunteering, Cris sings in the choir at Trinity Lutheran Church and helps with the Saturday evening services. She also loves to garden, play golf, ski in the winter, and is a part of a women’s walking group in her neighborhood.

Cris also likes to read, a passion that gets fed by volunteering at Good Cheer.

“Betty the ‘book lady’ is always giving me books that she says I need to buy and read,” Cris said. “Just about every day I work, I come home with a new book.”

Previously Featured Volunteer: Louise Prewitt

Good Cheer Board Member Louise Prewitt has always been in the business of helping people.

She worked in disaster relief for The American Red Cross from 1982 to 1998. “I had always wanted to help out at Good Cheer but never had time. So when I retired, I decided that the time was right.”

That was in 1998 and she’s been going strong ever since. Just ask anyone around Good Cheer and they’ll tell you that Louise is the volunteer/board member who can do anything, be it sorting donations, checking office paperwork, or measuring out and bagging bulk rice for clients.
“I’ve been around so long that I know how to do just about anything,” she said. “When I come in I just say ‘Where do you want me? And then, that’s what I do.”
Her first love, however, is the food bank because that’s where her volunteer work at Good Cheer began.

She oftentimes attends the Tuesday night work parties, and is known to have a joke or two to tell the other volunteers.

“Anybody who volunteers time is a saint in my book,” she said. “They all have wings and a halo to me,” she said of the volunteers at Good Cheer.

Having traveled the world doing disaster relief, Louise is appreciative of being able to help right here in her own community.

“We have a need here whether you want to believe it or not,” she said. “There are hungry people right here on South Whidbey and they need our help.”

Louise came to Whidbey Island looking for a summer home in 1969. Her first husband, who died in 1989, was a geologist and traveled for his job to remote places. Because they had a brand new baby, she couldn’t travel that summer with him.

“I found an old farmhouse built in 1905 and I loved it so much that we made it our permanent home,” she said.

She met her second husband while working in International Relief. Together, she and her current husband have “the yours, mine and ours family” of four children and seven grandchildren, she said.

Louise credits the current Good Cheer Board of Directors with getting a lot done for the organization.

“The board is just very progressive,” she said. “It’s great to be a part of that. Everyone works together so well. They are all about trying to find answers and they do just that.”

Louise is a member of Good Cheer’s finance committee, the building committee, and helps with special projects such as finding a new delivery truck for Good Cheer. She is also Good Cheer’s representative for Whidbey Island Nourishes (WIN) committee that provides lunches when school lunches are not available.

“Louise is the one board member who attends all the food bank conferences and workshops with Good Cheer staff,” Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin said. “She was also the first one to help and the last one to leave when we opened the Clothing Rack, and when we were preparing for the food bank open house.”

Louise’s love for helping others and for Whidbey Island are combined in her work at Good Cheer.

“Gosh, what’s not to like about helping people?” she said. “You do it because you can and because you care.”

She feels a strong sense of community and thinks all residents of Whidbey Island need to give back.

“We’re all a part of this place,” she said. “We all have a responsibility to help each other and make this a better place. We all need to do our part.”

Previously Featured Volunteer: Jim Troxel

“When I started volunteering at the food bank, Good Cheer was in the middle of looking for a new location,” Troxel said.

“Somehow it came out that my last job before I retired was as director of real estate for Associated Grocers. Kathy (McLaughlin) found that out and asked me if I’d be able to contribute to the real estate needs.”

“Jim’s volunteering at Good Cheer and his expertise in real estate were a great combination,” said Kathy McLaughlin, Executive Director at Good Cheer. “He has been a great asset to the Bayview building project.”

Soon Troxel found himself on the construction committee for Good Cheer, coordinating the search for a new home for the food bank.

When the chairman of the committee, Maury Hood, resigned to head a large construction project, “They asked me to take over and I said ‘Yes.’”

Troxel used his past experience in commercial real estate to help negotiate the purchase of the former Masonic Lodge, now the Good Cheer Bayview site. He also had a hand in the sale of another piece of property near there that was going to be the site for the food bank, before the opportunity of the Masonic Lodge presented itself.

Once Good Cheer decided on the Bayview location, Troxel coordinated the design and remodeling, working with LAS Design Company and Gemkow Construction.

“I was sort of the third party between Kathy and the staff and the construction and remodeling personnel,” he said. “In a project like this, there are always things that change, once you get into it. Sometimes on paper you think one thing is going to work, when actually at the site, you can see that another way would be better.”

In the beginning of the committee’s work, he was at meetings almost every other week for more than a year and was often onsite during the renovation and construction.

“I am certainly glad to have been a part of it,” he said. “It turned out well and I’m glad everyone is pleased with the building.

“It’s so exciting to see people coming and going from the food bank, even though it’s only been open a few weeks,” he added.Little did Jim Troxel know that volunteering at the Good Cheer Food Bank would lead him to other volunteer jobs.

“When I started volunteering at the food bank, Good Cheer was in the middle of looking for a new location,” Troxel said.

“Somehow it came out that my last job before I retired was as director of real estate for Associated Grocers. Kathy (McLaughlin) found that out and asked me if I’d be able to contribute to the real estate needs.”

“Jim’s volunteering at Good Cheer and his expertise in real estate were a great combination,” said Kathy McLaughlin, Executive Director at Good Cheer. “He has been a great asset to the Bayview building project.”

Soon Troxel found himself on the construction committee for Good Cheer, coordinating the search for a new home for the food bank.

When the chairman of the committee, Maury Hood, resigned to head a large construction project, “They asked me to take over and I said ‘Yes.’”

Troxel used his past experience in commercial real estate to help negotiate the purchase of the former Masonic Lodge, now the Good Cheer Bayview site. He also had a hand in the sale of another piece of property near there that was going to be the site for the food bank, before the opportunity of the Masonic Lodge presented itself.

Once Good Cheer decided on the Bayview location, Troxel coordinated the design and remodeling, working with LAS Design Company and Gemkow Construction.

“I was sort of the third party between Kathy and the staff and the construction and remodeling personnel,” he said. “In a project like this, there are always things that change, once you get into it. Sometimes on paper you think one thing is going to work, when actually at the site, you can see that another way would be better.”

In the beginning of the committee’s work, he was at meetings almost every other week for more than a year and was often onsite during the renovation and construction.

“I am certainly glad to have been a part of it,” he said. “It turned out well and I’m glad everyone is pleased with the building.

“It’s so exciting to see people coming and going from the food bank, even though it’s only been open a few weeks,” he added.

Previosuly Featured Volunteer: Evvy Brumback

Evvy Brumback never really thinks of her age until someone asks her how it is that she has lived to be 91 and in such good health.

“I tell them the secret is to go to bed every night and then just get up every morning,” she says with a laugh.

Evvy is an active nonagenarian who volunteered regularly as a cashier at Good Cheer until health problems forced her to slow down a bit several years ago. Now she’s back from time to time, accompanying her neighbor and good friend Helen Nobile, another Good Cheer volunteer, in straightening and cleaning the thrift store shelves in Langley.

“My mother is a fighter and a two-time cancer survivor,” says Evvy’s daughter, Bonnie. “She doesn’t believe in laying around and feeling sorry for herself.”

Indeed, Evvy spreads a little sunshine as part of the senior Fun Band, in which she plays the trumpet kazoo and sings a little, playing gigs all over the island and at nursing homes.

Music comes naturally to Evvy, the fourth of eight children who grew up in a very musical family in Walla Walla, WA. Every child played an instrument or sang. Now there are only two siblings, both younger, remaining.

Evvy began volunteering one day at Good Cheer when she was stopped in the store with Helen.
“I just went up to Irene Walker and asked her if she needed a volunteer. Irene put me right to work helping her cashier.”

“I made so many good customer friends,” she says. “One woman who was color-blind even let me pick out her clothing for her.”

Good Cheer staff and volunteers celebrated Evvy’s birthday last Spring at their monthly luncheon. “It’s just the greatest thing to make friends with all the staff and volunteers who work here. The party was great. It was just like home.”

Previously Featured Volunteer: Jim Engstrom

Rain or shine, six days a week Jim Engstrom patiently waits outside his house for a ride that will bring him to Good Cheer Langley or Clinton for another full day of volunteer work.

Jim is one of Good Cheer’s most stalwart and appreciated volunteers.
In 2006 alone Jim has given 1,057 hours of service to Good Cheer in a variety of areas such as:
Stocking the food bank’s freezer with 3,167 chickens and 7,464 lbs. of hamburger...
Making 528 pots of coffee for the volunteers and staff...
Vacuuming the thrift stores retail floors some 175 times...
Going to Northwest Harvest and picking up 33,264 lbs. of donated food...
Cooking and serving 567 hot dogs and hamburgers on customer appreciation days...
Going on donated item pick-up runs to area homes....
Bringing a smile to the faces of 9 staff and 110 volunteers.

"Jim is my right hand man,” said David Phelps, Good Cheer’s Food Bank manager. “I appreciate how he works so hard in keeping the food bank neat and well-stocked. It is so nice having an assistant that understands the importance of being responsive and accountable to the families we serve,” he added.

Executive Director Kathy McLaughlin echoes the sentiment. “The favorite part of my day is when Jim brings me my first cup of coffee with a great big smile and asks me how I’m doing,” she said.

“He then goes on to do his daily report which may include that we are low on hamburger, out of coffee, or that the truck is making a strange noise and needs to be checked out.

“Jim’s favorite thing to share is funny stories. He loves to laugh and always engages others to join in the fun.

“Jim is the sunshine of Good Cheer. When he isn’t here there is a big void in my day,” Kathy adds.

For his part, Jim says that he enjoys being a part of the team and working with the volunteers and the many people who come in to use the food bank. “There’s lots of good people here,” he says.

He looks forward to helping with the move to the new food bank where he will continue to be David Phelps assistant.

The pride Jim takes in keeping the food bank stocked and in good order is evident, as is his willingness to be of assistance in any way that he can.

Food Bank Intern Mannette Owens observes that, “Food bank clients like Jim because he is friendly, kind, and genuinely concerned that they receive every item available. He greets everyone with a smile and makes the visit as enjoyable as possible. Many clients consider him a friend.”

It was three years ago when Jim came into Good Cheer in Langley and asked to help. “What started out as one day a week soon grew to five and then six days,” says his mother, Clare.

“He really enjoys his work at Good Cheer and has probably gained from it as much as he has given. He has become more confident and outgoing,” she said.

Jim used to spend his days fixing lawn mowers and other mechanical items, something that he was very good at it, according to his father, Harold, but it was work that didn’t bring him into contact with many people.

His work at Good Cheer however, allows him to share his natural gifts of humor and generosity, and has enlarged his circle of friends.

Jim and his parents moved to South Whidbey from Granite Falls about 12 years ago. Younger brother, Kevin, a mortgage broker in Freeland, is proud of his older brother and the contribution to the community that he makes.

“Jim is just a great guy... he’s very generous... with a heart the size of Texas,” said Kevin.
A gentle giant of a man at 6 feet 1 inch, Jim uses his strength in moving donated items into Good Cheer’s truck and van, accompanying lead driver Mark Small several times a week.

“I really appreciate Jim’s happy-go-lucky attitude,” said Mark. “He makes my job much easier and my days brighter.”

Good Cheer Two manager Judy Allen agrees. She appreciates Jim’s reliability and willingness to help at the Clinton Thrift Store on Saturdays when he moves furniture and helps people load items into their vehicles.

"He likes to be in the middle of people, and knows his help is very welcome here,” she said.

And greatly appreciated.

Previously Featured Volunteer: Larry Poolman

After Larry Poolman works from 5 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. as a grounds maintenance employee for South Whidbey School District, he drives to Good Cheer Two Thrift Store in Clinton, where he puts in a “second shift” as a volunteer, usually for another four hours.

Most people would be too tired after working a full-time job to volunteer afterward, but Larry finds the work relaxing... and even fun.

“I was taught young how to work hard, he says. “And here the people – both staff and customers – are very friendly,” he said, as he helped load a newly bought couch onto a truck. “It’s really a fun place to be.”

Larry came to the store five months ago to help his sister, Judy Allen, the store manager, move some items, and has been returning nearly every day ever since. He voluntreers about 142 hours a month, sometimes working alongside his 16-year-old daughter Sara, who also volunteers.

When he’s not moving furniture around, Larry sort items, puts them on the display floor, and does general tidying up, plus dusting. “There’s always dusting to do,” he says with a laugh.
“I started volunteering at Good Cheer because at age 53 I felt it was time for me to give something back to the community,” he said, inviting others to come and try volunteering.
“We need more volunteers,” he explained, “even if just for a few hours a day. People should come and try it out for a few weeks... just come and see if they like it. I think they will,” he said.

“Larry is a perfect fit for Good Cheer,” says Kathy McLaughlin, G.C’s Executive Director. “He has a heart of gold and the ability to turn our donations into the condition that makes them sellable and desirable,” she added.

Previously Featured Volunteer: Helen Nobile

Helen Nobile has a smile so wide her face can hardly contain it, a joyful bounce in her step, and an irrepressibly cheerful disposition.

A volunteer at Good Cheer for the past 41/2 years, she places newly received clothes on the thrift store racks in Langley and tidies up the store.

“I try to make the store look nice so that people will buy more items—because that’s what the thrift store is all about—raising money for the food bank,” she said.

“I love shopping at thrift stores myself, and I used to come here all the time. One day I asked if I could help, and that’s how I became a volunteer.

“I am so thankful that there is a need for volunteers at Good Cheer. I am the receiver of happiness because it fills my soul to be useful,” she said.

“I love the people here, they are wonderful—so happy and friendly,” she said, waving to several patrons and volunteers.

Helen is known as much for her willingness to work as she is for her positive attitude and high energy.

“She’s as cute as a shetland pony, with the work ethic and determination of a mule,” is how one staff member describes her.

About the only thing people don’t know about Helen is her age­—a fact that she politely, but firmly refuses to discuss.

“Age doesn’t matter as long as a person has good health,” she said.

“Even if a person is home-bound, there’s always something they can do. Several of my neighbors at Brookhaven put together card packets at home or work on doll clothes for the thrift store,” she says.

“I’ve been volunteering for about 25 years in a number of ways, from picking up litter and fishing nets on beaches in Hawaii, to cleaning up litter on highways in Montana, and now the thrift store. Volunteering has been a wonderful way of life for me,” she said.

Previously Featured Volunteer: Britt Fletcher

Britt Fletcher, our featured volunteer, is also a Good Cheer Board member.

When Britt and his family moved to Whidbey Island four years ago they looked for various ways to get involved with the local community.

Britt’s younger daughter Savannah learned about volunteer opportunities at Good Cheer during a presentation at the church they attend. She expressed a keen interest in volunteering and encouraged her father to join her.

About 10 hours a month, father and daughter sort and tag clothes together for Good Cheer’s Thrift Store. Britt also fills in as driver of Good Cheer’s item pick-up truck when needed.

“Hands-on work lets you directly see the impact of your efforts,” says Britt.

“You gain a greater understanding of the problem of hunger in our community and the vital role Good Cheer Food Bank fills in supplying this basic human need,” he said.

“Volunteering at Good Cheer is fun, the hours are flexible, the people are nice, and it’s a great way to share time with my daughter while helping a good cause,” he adds.

In addition to volunteering, Britt also spends about five hours a month serving on Good Cheer’s Board as Treasurer–—a good fit for his 20 years of banking and financial consulting experience.

Currently Britt is working with the Finance Committee in completing next year’s budget for Good Cheer.

He is also assisting with preparations for an independent financial audit which will help open the door for increased grant funding to Good Cheer.

“Serving on the Board is a good experience because everyone works well together as a team,” he says.

Previously Featured Volunteer: Min Dexter
The first Good Cheer newsletter, published in July of 1995, featured volunteer Min Dexter.

The article pointed out that Min had been volunteering at Good Cheer for 17 years. Well, another 10 years have gone by, and Min is still here volunteering in the sorting room.

In honor of Min’s 28 years of service, she is once again our featured volunteer.

Min has lived all of her life in Washington, starting in St. John, which is south of Spokane. Her parents were pioneers who plowed under the wild grass to grow wheat. She later lived in the Yakima valley, where she met and married her late husband, Wayne.

He worked in construction, and during World War II helped build many government installations, including Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

They moved to Langley in 1946 and Min still lives in their little red house on the edge of town. Her green thumb keeps busy in one of the most prolific flower and vegetable gardens in town.

Min worked 25 years as a cashier at the Star Store and to this day at Good Cheer will volunteer in all areas, except the cash register.

She became acquainted with Good Cheer because her late husband would come to Good Cheer for coffee every morning.

“When I first went to work we practically fought over bags of clothing because they were few and far between,” she said. “It was a big day if we sold $100 worth of merchandise.”

Min officially volunteers two days a week, but she’s here almost every day. She says, “it’s just to check in,” but we all know she wants to make sure the rest of us are doing our jobs.

She has no plans of slowing down. “I always tell people that there’s something you can do to help, no matter what your age,” says Min.

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Previously Featured Volunteer:
Lorraine Smalley

A large black plastic trash bag lies open in Lorraine Smalley’s Langley kitchen, its contents spilling out onto the clean tile floor.

But there’s no garbage in this bag. Instead, about 20 old, used dolls peek out with (one could imagine) hopeful eyes lifted to the woman who may be able to restore them to their former glory.

She’s the “Doll Lady” for Good Cheer, a volunteer who for the last 14 years has taken on the task of cleaning, mending and sometimes re-dressing the dolls that have been donated to Good Cheer’s thrift shop.

“This doll has good clothes, but they need to be cleaned,” Smalley explains as she undresses a 1970s-era career girl doll with a long skirt and faux-fur wrap. “But after I throw them in the washing machine, you won’t believe the difference. They’ll look new again.”

Other dolls have other problems: wear and tear, spots on their clothes, straggly hair, or just grime from longtime use by their owners.

“Most of them will clean up beautifully,” Smalley said. For an American Girl doll with torn clothes, Smalley will go to her storage bins for a replacement outfit and turn out a doll that will fetch a good price in the store.

Those storage bins––plus four bureau drawers and three shelves packed tight with thousands of items in clear plastic bags––are part of the Doll Lady’s prodigious collection of doll clothes and accessories: tiny socks, underwear, dresses, slacks, tops, sport outfits, everything the well-dressed doll needs to go out again. They are cleaned and pressed, ready to use when the need arises.

“But shoes are hard to find,” Smalley said. “They’re precious. I crave doll shoes.”

Smalley has a lifetime of work in artistic endeavors that makes her a natural for doll restoration. She has crafted dolls herself and sculpted a series of busts depicting women who each have a story and who each wear a unique beaded hat -- a wealthy dowager, a fashion plate, a ‘20s swinger, and other notables.

Her creative bent is evident even in her home’s décor. Unusual shoes (starting with a pair of shiny black patent-leather tap shoes found at Good Cheer) walk up the steps of her staircase, and a hat collection (over 100 hats) is displayed along the walls.

Despite her many interests, she takes time to take care of the dolls brought to her every month by Good Cheer.

“There were about 20 today, and I get about 30 a month,” she said. Doing the math, that comes to somewhere around 300 dolls a year. So in her 14 years of doll restoration, as many as 5,000 dolls have passed through her capable hands and found new futures in the Good Cheer thrift store and eventually new places in the life of a child.

written by Joan Soltys, Board Member