A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place
Hidden deep in the bowels – actually just the basement – of St. Joseph’s Home for Children lies the warehouse, which contains donations of everything from blankets to basketballs to shampoo.
Sorting these items and storing them in their proper places proves no small task, but every Tuesday afternoon three women face it head on.
“We feel dedicated” to the job, says volunteer Ruth Dahlgren. “We try to keep it all organized.”
Dahlgren started volunteering in St. Joe’s warehouse in 1996. Shortly after that, Nancy Lindquist and Judy Hildman joined her because the task of sorting became too much for one person to complete. Every Tuesday, the trio spends about three hours – more during Christmastime – sifting through the clothes, toys and hygiene products people donate to St. Joe’s.
Volunteers such as Dahlgren, Lindquist and Hildman provide Catholic Charities with more than $3.2 million in salary savings and play a vital role in the helping the agency fulfill its mission.
The work of the “warehouse ladies,” as they’re affectionately known, does not go unappreciated, says St. Joe’s Volunteer Coordinator Mary Schoelch.
After the three of them began working together, it didn’t take long for the warehouse to get organized.
“Judy couldn’t stand anything marked ‘miscellaneous,’” Dahlgren says with a smile. So they labeled everything and put it in its own place in the warehouse.
Winter coats go in one room, jeans and shirts in another and Teddy bears, which Dahlgren says are a huge hit with the children, go in their own space.
They try their best to organize the warehouse in a fashion similar to a store, Lindquist says, so children or staff “can find what they’re looking for without too much effort.”
Their work takes a lot of pressure off St. Joe’s staff as well.
“We know the staff wouldn’t have time for all this,” Hildman says as she points to the shelves of donations around her. “We let the staff do what they do best: take care of the kids.”
The group loves helping out St. Joe’s staff and children, but perhaps the strongest reason for their continued hard work is one another’s company.
“The friendships we’ve made have kept us volunteering here for so long,” she says. “We enjoy working here and have a lot of fun working together.”
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