Community Store helps meet needs of many throughout area
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
It's the store that pays the community for shopping in it.
The Community Store on Main Street in Goldendale provides a broad range of services to the area. On the one hand, it's a second-hand store, with sometimes first-hand quality merchandise for reasonable prices. On the other hand, it's got a whole life of its own behind the scenes, providing necessities for free for those in need and offering solace for many whose greatest requirement is simply hope.
Jessica Beiker operates the store and says it's there to do as much as possible for anyone in need. "Anyone Social Services brings to us with a note, we try to provide for them and get them what they need for free," she says. "We get referrals from Gorge Action, the welfare department, the police department. Sometimes we even get calls on the weekend; someone asks if I can come over and help a little family who's stranded. We've done that a couple of times."
While the store is not an official welfare agency nor directly connected with any, Beiker sees her work as something of an unofficial extension of them. "All the social service programs are stretched," she says. "We're not non-profit. I'm sure it would benefit the owner, the man who lets me be in here, at tax time; but we made the decision not to be." That in itself distinguishes the store from typical social service organizations, but Beiker says the determination not to be non-profit is highly utilitarian. "I've sat on so many non-profit boards in my life," she points out, "and I know that if someone is standing on the other side of my counter and tells me they need blood pressure medication now, I don't have time to call a board meeting and vote on it. They get help now."
Beiker makes continual reference to the unidentified person who funded the start-up of the store-and she explains why he remains unknown. "He came to one of the car shows about a year and a half ago," she recalls. "We just got to talking. He'd never been to Goldendale in his life; he'd just come for the car show. He asked what I did, and I told him I was a retired chemical dependency therapist. He then asked me what I'd like to do, and I said I'd love to have a very different second-hand store, a place where we can also do some social service resourcing. I told him the things I wanted to have happen here. He asked, 'Why don't you?' I told him, 'Because I'm poor; I'm on Social Security disability. I'd love to have a store, but it's not something I can do personally.' I didn't know him from Adam."
Soon thereafter the stranger put his own money into Beiker's dream. Playfully given the pseudonym "Guido," he remains closely supportive, in total anonymity, of the store. "I've learned a lot about him since," Beiker says. "I know he's a very caring man. He contributes to many children's causes in the Seattle area. I know he has his own business. I've probably seen him in a year and a half four times since he allowed us to open this store. He came on the grand opening of the store a year and a half ago. And I see him sometimes when he comes to drop off merchandise people have given him or from garage sales. He'll just pop up. He does live far away, so he has, by choice, in his humility, just kept doing what he does."
Guido's involvement required serious financial commitment. "For the first several months when the store was just getting off the ground, he had to make the rent and utilities, and he was more than willing to do that," Beiker recalls. "Luckily so far, with the blessing we've had, this store now and the stuff that we can sell each at least pays the rent and utilities. There are times it's kind of close."
Beiker says the community support for the store has been extraordinary, beginning with the material sold in it. Everything sold in the store is donated by people in the community.
She tells stories of how people, time after time, have stepped up to provide items the store requires for its activities. On one occasion, the store needed a van. Through an intriguingly circuitous chain of events, she ended up not only with a vehicle but also the support of an entire car club, whose members showed up bringing donations.
"They came from hundreds of miles away last winter, three days before we got hit with that huge snow storm," she says. "We formed a chain from Sterling Bank to the back door. I thought they were bringing food primarily, but then they started unloading washers, dryers, couches, Christmas presents new in the box for children. There were maybe 15 of them, men and women. They were the most incredible group of people. And October 13 of this year, they came again. There were less of them because the economy is down, and a lot of them had lost their jobs or had been laid off; but they still traveled far and still brought a ton of food for the food program. We also put a huge barbeque out here in the back in the alley. They cooked food for the people who were unloading, so we all sat out there and had a barbeque. All that was all over some little Chevy truck."
Beiker says the people her store serves have a wide range of needs. "We're seeing more seniors who just don't have enough money," she says. "Blood pressure medication can be $150 a month. If anything happens that's out of their budget that month, they can't cover it. Most don't have insurance. I tell them all about the different medicine programs where they can get free meds, so I'm educating them about that. Sometimes we have to take and show them."
The support the store provides comes exclusively from the sale of merchandise in the store. "It's really important that folks know we run strictly on this merchandise," Beiker points out. "The struggle with this store is always going to be the need for merchandise. I have faith that it's always going to come through the door."
Heart takes step toward leadership of WSSDA
Andrew Christiansen
Reporter
Deborah Heart of the Goldendale School Board has been chosen president-elect of the Washington State School Directors' Association (WSSDA), the organization made up of all the state's locally elected school board members. Heart, a member of the Goldendale School Board for 16 years, says she was raised to be in public service.
"I wanted to be a teacher, but there was a glut in the market when I graduated from college." When the opportunity presented itself on the Goldendale school board, she jumped in with both feet. Heart was elected to the WASSDA board of directors six years ago. Heart served as the organization's vice president during the past year, has been active on the Legislative Committee, Task Force on Small Schools Issues and Annual Conference Planning Committee. In addition she serves as WSSDA's liaison for implementation of a state law aimed at promoting tribal history and culture in public schools. She is a 2008 graduate of the association's Leadership WSSDA training program.
Heart will serve as president elect until next November's annual WSSDA meeting where she will be installed as president. She will preside over the board during 2011 and continue another year on the board as past president.
The big issues for the coming year, according to Heart are funding and accountability issues, including the WASL, and a push from the state board of education to increase graduation from 19 to 24 credits. WASSDA officers serve as state-level advocates for local school boards and their efforts to promote student achievement. The officers are frequently called upon to represent the association and communicate its positions to policymakers and other education organizations at the state and national levels.
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