Volunteering at the Thrift Store

[Abby McPherson]

When I walked into the Mercer Island Thrift Shop for the first time I was ready to tackle my volunteer shift head-on. I got to go into the back of the shop, which was bigger than I first thought. There were stacks of books, boxes of electronics, people carrying in new donations every now and then. It was a really cool place, and everybody was really nice and helpful. On my first two shifts, I got to test the donated electronics to see if they worked correctly. I got to test a lot of things, from blenders, lamps, vacuum cleaners, and even a few toaster ovens! There was only one big downside: there was no one to really talk to. Occasionally a person would walk by carrying a box, and we would exchange words of greeting. On the next shifts, I got to help out tagging and hanging, which was a lot more eventful than testing electronics. I got to use a tagging gun, which sort of inserts tags into clothes. After that, I would hang up the clothes on their correct racks, and go back to tag some more clothes. In the tagging and hanging area (which was on the second floor, right above the place I was working before), there were a more people, so I actually had a decent conversation here and there. Overall, I’m glad I did it, because it was a fun and useful experience to me, and I'll probably go back do some more in the summer, once school is over.