If you’re looking for Cindy while she’s volunteering in the ReStore, you have to use your ears, not your eyes. As a retired physical education teacher, Cindy loves that volunteering in the ReStore keeps her moving. She darts from the pricing area to the art wall and then into a vignette. Seeing a customer looking a little lost, Cindy stops and, with a big, welcoming smile, offers to walk them to the lighting section – genially chatting along the way.
As a recent transplant to the Matthews area from Pennsylvania, Cindy started volunteering in the ReStore almost a year ago. She started in the same way many volunteers do: by shopping. “Well, because I moved here, I came here shopping. And I bought some things, and then I came back, and then I thought, I LOVE THIS PLACE – maybe I should work here!” After creating an account online and completing orientation, Cindy started doing just that – as a twice-a-week volunteer.
You can quickly tell that working with customers is one of her favorite parts of volunteering. “I love people, and I love to talk to people,” she says. But she also appreciates that there’s an opportunity for everyone in the ReStore. “It’s a great place to work – it can use different skills that you have. We look up things on a computer, not my favorite thing to do, but we have some workers who love to do that. So, I feel like you can really use your different skills that you have. And it’s a great worthwhile opportunity to serve and do something that’s very significant.”
And she still loves shopping here. “I love the finds that I have. My husband tells me that I can’t volunteer anymore because every time I come home with something”, she says with a laugh. “And I just tell him that it is my contribution to a great ministry.”