A Sicamous staple is celebrating 30 years of giving back to the community.
This September, the Sicamous United Church Thrift Shop will have been serving the community for 30 years.
Bernice Hyam played an integral part in starting the thrift shop and for years helped with its operation. While the octogenarian doesn’t have a hand in running it today, she said she was the one with the chequebook back in the day.
Hyam has lived in the Sicamous area since 1936, when her father was a logger and they lived in a small log cabin, feeding her father’s logging crew meals around their big dining room table. Community and gathering was important to Hyam since those days, fostered by her parents and the desire to take care of each other.
Hyam’s husband worked for the contractor that built the sanctuary at the church that is used today.
She became seriously involved in the church when her children were young, enrolling them in Sunday school after a student minister convinced her to become a teacher in 1964.
The idea for a permanent thrift shop came in the late 1960s/early ‘70s, when a new resident minister started at the church. He came from Kamloops, where there was a basement church shop, and the minister said Sicamous needed something long-term to help the church make money, Hyam said.
The church held weekly rummage sales in the sanctuary, with removable racks to hold clothing onto cupboard doors and bins full of stuff, needing a lot of work to set up and take down. The first year’s proceeds were $650, said Hyam.
The group determined they’d need to make about $5,000 more than the existing thrift shop in town to pay bills. Hyam said the minister never lost faith and believed the venture would be successful.
There was opposition against the thrift shop opening as well, said Hyam, from the ladies’ group that held their own rummage sales and said the church would never get enough stuff to sell and maintain a storefront. The ladies also doubted the church would be able to get enough workers as they struggled to staff their sales.
“We persevered,” said Hyam, explaining the church was part of a program called Vitality which included a “dream sheet,” a sort of manifestation plan, and top of the list was a permanent facility for a thrift shop.
At the back of the church property was a trailer, used for lodging, that was converted into a storage and sorting area. The congregation responded to the church’s determination as they increased rummage sales and, in 1991/92, donated enough money to buy a movable, temporary shelter. It was set up on a concrete pad and the Sicamous United Church Thrift Shop officially opened on Sept. 1, 1993.
“People were not just coming in for the bargains, but for the friendship and caring as well,” said Hyam.
The shop became known for quality items and camaraderie, a community gathering place, she said. Since its original building, the thrift shop has seen three add-ons, and church board member Kris Nickerson said they’re still running out of space.
A thrift shop priority was giving back to the community, especially to those seriously in need, said Hyam. If someone had suffered a house fire or couldn’t afford clothes for their children, the thrift shop would give them what they needed, for free.
The shop’s profits are also tithed, which within the church means 10 per cent of profits are donated back to the community off the top, given to the women’s shelter, food banks and other care organizations, Hyam said.
“We never wanted people to be on their own, so it’s just a thank you to the community.”
Another important aspect to Hyam was the care the volunteers showed each other. The coffee break conversations and personal problem-solving shared in the thrift shop are some of her favourite memories, she said.
“It serves a purpose, to recycle, otherwise everything would go to the dump, but I really enjoyed the camaraderie and fun we had working for that shared purpose.”
Fred and Alice Duck, other vital members of the group that started the thrift shop, shared their memories and also emphasized the feeling of belonging and community in the shop.
“I did eight fashion shows over the years, I’d pick 40 people from the community in all ages and stages and let them pick their outfits,” said Alice. “The value, I’d commentate and say, ‘I’ve got an outfit here that costs…$10 but it retails, with all the name brands, $1,100.’”
People in the community call the thrift shop the “Sicamous Boutique,” said Nickerson, because of the high quality of items dropped off. Bags of rags made of anything that isn’t up to shop standards is sold to houseboat and industrial companies to clean with, further promoting the recycling values the shop upholds.
“It’s working for income but also good stewardship,” said Fred.
“We try to use the thrift shop as a ministry to people, it’s important for the town. The thrift shop is for socially conscious people…who are doing their best.”
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