The SAVE Thrift Store is a small thrift shop in Purdy, Washington, right next to Peninsula High School. The store works hand in hand with the scholarship committee for Peninsula High School and all proceeds go to scholarships for students. People from around the community volunteer to help out at the store. This past summer, a group of volunteers lead by Vicky Donahoe remodeled the store. They spent their whole summer cleaning, painting, decorating, and redesigning the store to help business.

The store provides volunteer opportunities to many young students at Peninsula High School. Working at the SAVE Thrift Store helps students get volunteer hours, while they are simultaneously learning about what it takes to raise a big portion of scholarship money. There are many people constantly helping out and getting things done. According to Mrs. Donahoe, everyone loves volunteering there and it “always feels good to help out the community.”

Vicky Donahoe is the current president of this committee and she has been for the past couple years. She has two children who have gone too, and are currently attending Peninsula High. Mrs. Donahoe strongly feels that the work she does in the store has a big impact on young students lives.

Katie Donahoe is Vickys daughter and she helps out at the store very often. She usually runs the register or helps out with pricing merchandise. Katie has logged over 120 hours since this summer and continues to help out three days a week after school. According to katie, “the environment at the store is super sweet and the people there are all very genuine and easy to work with.”

Donahoe decided to start helping out with this committee because of her two daughters and she knew this would help introduce them to the community and show them how you can play your part to make a difference. While working at the store, there are lots of different things people do to help out. There is always someone running the register, helping shelve items, moving boxes, pricing merchandise, and so much more.

The money that the thrift shop raises all goes to the scholarship foundation to help fund college educations for many well rounded students. This operation has been in business for almost 30 years and has raised about $100,000 in scholarship money every year.

  Students can gain experience and volunteer hours by helping out at the store. Activity groups can earn money for their own scholarships by volunteering. Many people help out here for the benefit of the community and funding their own education. The way that this program works is that students make their own portfolios for the awards ceremony in May. A good handful of people win scholarship money based on their amount of volunteer hours logged and how good they look on paper.

This program has changed the pathway for so many young people’s lives and everyone who has contributed to this is very proud and will continue to help out for a long time. The amount of money raised goes up a little bit every year and every little bit helps. So head on over to the Save Thrift Store, and show your support for our kids.