Thrift store changing faces

The woman carefully approached the bookcase, examining the items on the shelves. Her hands grasped two white candleholders as her eyes searched for the right place to put them.

“Aha!” she said, reaching to the top shelf.

Pam Harris smiled and suggested moving one slightly, to show the price tag and painted flowers, then praised her for a job well done.

“I knew you’d be good at this,” said Harris, director of education and training at TESH Inc., a Coeur d’Alene nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities find jobs and learn to live independently. “Good job, Tana. I just knew it.”

Tana Thorneycroft beamed.

Thursday was Thorneycroft’s first day at the Post Falls Senior Center’s thrift store. A client with TESH, 29-year-old Thorneycroft is one of five new employees at the store.

The senior center is handing over control of the store to the organization, giving five of TESH’s clients new jobs. Volunteers from the senior center will still work in the store, along with a longtime employee. But TESH will pay the rent and use the store to train clients. Profits will be split evenly between the two groups.

“It’s still our store,” said Marie Fish, director of the senior center. “We can’t afford to give it up.”

The new arrangement allows the store’s longtime manager to retire and gives TESH clients new job opportunities, Fish said.

Job duties for TESH clients range from preparing donated items for sale, keeping the store clean, arranging item displays and helping customers. Thorneycroft, who’s developmentally disabled, learned the basics of putting new items on display Thursday.

Her boyfriend, fellow TESH client Chris Reiter, is another of the store’s new hires. He’ll work a few hours each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thorneycroft will work Tuesdays and Thursdays.

With the senior center volunteers and other workers, the store will have an even mix of disabled and typically developing employees, Harris said.

“We don’t want to just have a sheltered workshop,” Harris said.

TESH’s mission is to help clients live independently, and a big part of that is learning to work in a real workplace.

The organization has plans for the store. The seniors running the place before hadn’t been able to pick up donations since 2004 because the battery in their only vehicle had been stolen, and their age made it difficult to move large furniture and appliances. TESH bought the truck – a 1980 GMC – from the senior center for $1. Harris said they’ll start picking up donations as soon as it’s repaired.

They’d also like to offer consignment options at the store, meaning people could give items to the store to sell and share in the profits. Tentative plans call for the store to keep 30 percent of sale proceeds and the owner 70 percent, Harris said.

The store will always be a part of the senior center. Many seniors love the thrift store and dedicated much of their lives to it, Harris said.

But it was clear some had grown tired of work in their old age and were eager for a more restful retirement, she said. Just the other day, Harris said, one was working her final shift when the song “Take This Job and Shove It” came on the store radio.

“This lady’s in her 80s, and she was just over there belting it out,” Harris said with a laugh. “You could tell she was ready to retire.”