Good neighbors make life in Logan County better for all of us. LDN wants to celebrate the organizations and individuals who are especially caring and helpful. Please send your suggestions for groups and people we should cover, and provide a brief description of what they do that makes them Good Neighbors.
E-mail to ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com.


Volunteers: The backbone of the operation

[APRIL 8, 2000]  Time is an irreplaceable resource. Once it is gone, a person can never reclaim it. Glenna K. Smith and Donna L. Griffin choose to give their time as a gift on a regular basis. They are volunteers at the Pink Shutter Thrift Shop in Lincoln, owned and operated by the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital Auxiliary.

Glenna Smith, who will be 90 years old in June, has worked as a telephone operator, a schoolteacher and a grocery retailer. She lives in San Jose, on the Logan side of the county line. She began working for the Pink Shutter Thrift Shop in 1973 as a paid employee, and though she "officially retired," she still works there as a volunteer, averaging about eight hours a week. Glenna says, "It’s always been fascinating because you never know from one day to the next what you’ll find in the boxes! I think the Pink Shutter is a real community asset, and over the years it’s been a great service to the community." She adds, "I’ve made a world of friends here that I really treasure. They’ve been so good to me."

 


[Donna Griffin rings up a sale at the Pink Shutter]

 

Donna Griffin, another volunteer, is 77 years old and has lived in Lincoln since 1940. She retired from Lehn & Fink after working for 42 years as the secretary to the plant manager. When she started working there, it was known as Sterling Drugs. She has volunteered at the Pink Shutter since 1991, when a newspaper article about the shop caught her attention. As a member of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital Auxiliary Board, Donna serves as a liaison between board and the thrift shop. She also serves on the board of the American Cancer Society of Logan County.

She says that working at the thrift shop gives her "something worthwhile to do, and I enjoy the auxiliary." She recalls a memorable experience when the wife of a state congressman brought in one of his suits and returned later to see if she could get it back. "She said he wasn’t finished with it yet, but it was too late. It had already sold."

 

 

Thanks to volunteers like Glenna and Donna, the Pink Shutter Thrift Shop has raised $514, 337.00 since 1986. This has enabled the auxiliary to finance projects and purchases for Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital such as cardiac rehabilitation equipment, mammography grids, an EKG page writer and a surgical laser. Currently, the profits from the thrift shop’s retail sales are pledged to a new labor/delivery/postpartum room for the OB floor at the hospital.

The Pink Shutter opened on Pulaski Street in November 1961 and moved to 210 S. Chicago St. in 1968. The shop has been at its present location, 129 S. Sangamon, since February 1973.

There are just three paid employees: Jennifer Heidbreder, manager; Nancy Puls, assistant manager; and Ruby Doyle, a full-time sales associate. All other operations are covered by 40 regular volunteers. This March the Pink Shutter had 1,750 customers and sold 10,475 items.

Barbara Dahm, director of volunteer and special services at ALMH, acknowledges the volunteers’ part in their success. "We appreciate everything they do for us. We just can’t thank them enough. Volunteers really are very special people. We (the Pink Shutter) are a part of the hospital, and in helping here, they are making a great contribution to the community."

 


     [Ruby Doyle and Glenna Smith mark prices]

 

Manager Jennifer Heidbreder says, "The volunteers are a unique group of individuals from different walks of life. I think some of them, if they didn’t have this, they wouldn’t know what to do. It’s been a lot of fun working with these ladies. I’ve learned a lot from them talking about the old days."

 

[Curtis Sutterfield]

 

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