Where help is needed
Rose Dimico has her hands full managing a clothing bank for an average 175 people a week. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
This energetic great-grandmother volunteers 25 to 30 hours a week at Spokane Valley Partners, a community center that provides services for individuals and families in need.
“She’s a worker,” said volunteer Mary Paul, who helped Dimico sort clothes last week.
Dimico, 70, has spent the past 17 years volunteering for Partners, previously known as the Spokane Valley Community Center. Far from the average 10 people a week she started out helping, the clothing bank served 24,000 people in 2007 and handled more than 150,000 pounds of clothing and household linens.
“This mission of ours – the clothing bank – has grown so enormously it just takes so much more time and energy, more volunteers and space to put everything and store everything,” said Dimico.
She plans to keep helping all she can amid the growing need, because she said the job gives her a purpose each week as she helps others. It also has brought her many friendships among fellow volunteers.
As the volunteer manager for the clothing bank, she oversees a crew of about 27 volunteers who make sure donations are sorted for hanging on racks or assist clients as they arrive. She is always looking for additional helpers, especially when some of her reliable seniors leave for warmer climates during the winter.
“We’ve been sorting all day, and tomorrow it will go out,” Dimico said. “Clients come in and put it in their bags, and it goes out. It’s just a cycle.”
“My assistant described that we choreograph, and that is exactly what we do, so that front (clothing bank) runs smoothly – sorting donations in the back, handling the layette program, seasonal items, household goods, winter and summer storage.”
The clothing bank also offers a career clothes section supported through Best Foot Forward. Volunteers weigh and sort donations as they come in, sifting through what goes out right away or into storage.
“It’s a huge job. We used to have 10 clients, and now we have 175 a week. That’s a lot of clothes and miscellaneous you’re distributing to a lot of people.”
Dimico has spent most of her life in the Spokane Valley, arriving at age 5 when her dad started an apple orchard on East Trent Avenue near Kaiser. Her children all went through East Valley schools. At last count, she and her husband of 37 years, Pierrie, have 28 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren and two on the way.
Looking back, Dimico has never forgotten a time long ago when she received much-needed help from community groups.
“When I was a young single mother raising four children on my own, there were agencies that helped me, so I always thought when I could, I’d give back.” She worked for Tidyman’s for almost 19 years, and when she left that job in 1989, Dimico started volunteering for Catholic Charities. She came over to the Valley center in 1991 and helped in different areas, including the clothing bank, but soon moved permanently into clothing services as she set up computer files.
Dimico credited all of the center’s volunteers for their hard work and friendships over the years. “Volunteers are special people. I haven’t met anyone doing this who didn’t have a special quality.”
These days, as she spends more time in the back and behind the scenes, her commitment remains strong.
“I just remember how this would have helped me if I had access to something like this for my kids when I needed it. So many people were good to me when I needed help, so I started to come here to give back and now it’s grown into a thing of its own.”
“This is just my time. I so enjoy it. It gives me a purpose.”