FORT SILL, Okla.-- The hundreds of thousands of hours that volunteers donate each year at numerous Fort Sill units and organizations are essential to the smooth operation of those agencies. One facility where volunteers are especially critical is the Fort Sill Thrift Shop because it is primarily staffed by them.
"Without volunteers there would be no thrift shop," said Patricia Nance, shop manager. "If we paid all our volunteers, even minimum wage, we wouldn't be able to stay open because that would cost us more than we make. That's how important they are."
The thrift shop has 33 volunteers and four-paid staff who are Nance, an assistant manager, a cashier and a bookkeeper.
Volunteers' duties range from taking in consignments to separating donations to putting merchandise on the shop floor to computer support, said Jennifer Clayton, assistant manager.
"They know where everything is in the store and how to find it," Clayton said.
Volunteers range from teenagers in the Youth Hired! Apprentice Program to a volunteer who is 82, Nance said. Some work a couple hours a week, while others work the full 21 hours the store is open weekly, and others even more. One volunteer, Inge McKean, has been there 45 years.
Most are retirees and wives of retired Soldiers.
When asked why they donate their time to the thrift shop, volunteers consistently responded: To give back to the community, and the staff and customers are friendly.
Volunteer Martine Poppe, originally from Belgium, has worked at the shop for 24 years and averages about three hours a week, opting to work Fridays.
"Everyone (staff) here is so kind, and the customers are very pleasant," said Poppe, a retiree who lives in Lawton. "I've never had any problems with anyone."
Retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 and volunteer Al Anderson called his volunteer service "my job now."
Anderson works between 30 to 40 hours a week on the technical support of the computers and cash registers. Working in the store April 19, Anderson was busy upgrading the software on the store's cash registers. He said he also built the workbenches in the consignment take-in area.
Volunteer Rose Markus has worked at the shop for six years, and she performs 10 hours of service a week at the consignment desk.
"It keeps me out of trouble," she said with a laugh. "It keeps me busy and I like that."
Markus said she had volunteered at other post thrift shops and at Army Community Service during her husband's Army career.
Army wife and volunteer Jessica Marcillo, one of the younger volunteers, has been working since September.
"I get to work with spouses of retirees so I get to hear a little of where they're from and what they went through as spouses. I enjoy that," she said.
One of the lighter perks of the job is volunteers get first dibs on merchandise that comes into the store before it is placed on the floor, she said.
Marcilla absolutely recommends volunteering.
"I have fun and it's a nice way to interact with other people," she said. And, it's also a way of getting work experience.
Fort Sill Thrift Shop
The shop is open to the public for purchases, however, to consign items one must be a military ID card holder. It's behind the PX-tra at Bldg. 1712 Gruber Road. Sale hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, from 9-11 a.m.; and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Consignment hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.; and for military personnel in uniform, Tuesdays through Fridays, from 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Popular sale items include furniture and baby clothes. The shop does not accept appliances, tires or weapons. The shop is on Facebook, and the Web at thriftshopatfortsill.com.
Sales benefit community
The shop generates revenue from the sale of donated items and from consigned items. After overhead expenses, all profits from thrift shop sales go back into the fort and local communities, Nance said. Last year, the shop donated about $57,000 in charitable contributions locally, to organizations such as the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and YMCA. Two years ago, the figure was about $70,000.
Recently, the shop began donating $200 a month to the Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport's Soldier welcome center, she said.
A couple weeks ago at a thrift shop board meeting, members approved a request to donate money to Elgin Elementary School toward the purchase of a Smart Board, Nance said. Elgin elementary's population is 30 percent military, Clayton said.
Consignment items which do not sell and that are not picked up by the owner after two months are donated to the Greiner School for the Handicapped thrift store in Lawton, Nance said. This generates between $100 and $200 a week in sales for Greiner.
"I want the community to know that we are here, and that we can give money to help organizations," she said.
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