Mark your calendar! August 17 is National Thrift Store Day and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society thrift store aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The MCLB Barstow NMCRS Thrift Store currently has two active volunteers who open the store and manage all donations. They are actively looking for more volunteers.

Donna Hamilton, the lead volunteer, is from Victorville, California, where she retired after more than 20 years as a stockbroker in Phoenix, Arizona. By chance, she attended a luncheon on base and came across the information packet on volunteer opportunities on base, put together by then-volunteer coordinator Beth Simpson.

“There were so many opportunities on base and in Barstow, and I focused on the one with the thrift store. I went home and sent an email, and 90 minutes later I got a call and they said, ‘Your timing is perfect! Our current volunteer is being transferred to Texas,'” Hamilton said. “So I started volunteering right away. And now I’m still here. It’s been very rewarding and I get to do something for people.”

Hamilton has been volunteering at the thrift store since April 2021, officially becoming lead volunteer in May 2021 after the previous leader left for Texas. As lead volunteer, she handles accounting, all paperwork (which is sent to the NMCRS aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California), and accepts new volunteers, all in addition to the day-to-day duties of the store.

“I was on my own for about a year and a half. It was a lot of work, but that’s what I signed up for. You expect there’s going to be a lot of work involved. So (at first) I just went room by room and did as much as I could,” Hamilton said.

Volunteering at the thrift store wasn’t Hamilton’s first experience with NMCRS. Hamilton’s father was a career Marine and retired after 36 years, during which he served two tours in Vietnam. In the 1960s, during his second tour, his checks were not returned to the United States for some reason.

“My mother had four children and we had no money. She would rely on the Navy-Marine Corps Society relief funds to fix the washing machine, buy groceries, get gas, whatever, even back in the ’60s,” Hamilton said. “It’s a great honor now to help on this side after my family was helped on the other side. I help generate business and revenue so we can help more families.”

Nicole Dennehy Williams, the other volunteer at the thrift store, is a soldier’s wife who immigrated from Ireland and has been volunteering at the base since she arrived a year ago.

“As an immigrant, I couldn’t get a job right away and I didn’t know anyone, so I thought, ‘What have I gotten myself into?'” Dennehy Williams said, laughing. “Then one day at the gym, I happened to run into Kim Owens, another volunteer on base who is involved in a lot of things, and she told me about all these volunteer opportunities. That’s when I thought, ‘Okay, I need something to occupy my time and this is a really good way to meet people.'”

Williams is still waiting to work legally in the U.S., but her professional experience in community development and social engagement in Ireland has given her important skills needed to successfully perform all of her volunteer activities. She also volunteers with the Lifestyle, Insight, Networks, Knowledge and Skills program, where she serves as a certified mentor.

“It was nice to give back. Military life is so different than civilian life. When you come here (to a base), there are so many more resources. There are so many ways to ask for help and someone will step up to help you. It’s nice to be able to turn the tables and do something that gives back in some way,” Williams said. “It’s more than just a thrift store; it really builds the sense of community here.”

Marines from the Single Marine Program also volunteer to help sort the store’s donations and organize the donation storage room. Hamilton and Williams are always grateful for additional help in the thrift store. If you are a single Marine and would like to get involved, check the SMP calendar (which hangs in the SMP Recreation Center) for a full list of volunteer opportunities. For more information, contact SMP Coordinator Albert “AJ” Jacobs at (760) 577-5889 or [email protected].

Not only does working at the thrift store give volunteers valuable experience to add to their resume, but the interactions with customers also have a lasting impact.

“One time, relatively recently, we had a group come to us looking for a gift for their pregnant friend. They wanted to surprise her with some baby items. It was so much fun, we had brand new high chairs and a baby bouncer still in their packaging. They were so excited!” said Williams.

“You get to know the people better, the people who come into the store and the people who work on base. Some of them are acquaintances and some of them are, if I may say so, lifelong friends. One person in particular is a constant presence here. She’s always shopping. She tells me, ‘Hey, I need this item or that item, please keep an eye out,'” Hamilton said. “She was here recently and picked up some items that I had set aside for her. She told me they were perfect and gave me a new list of items to look for. I already knew exactly where to go, what to look for and what would fit her,” Hamilton said.

American author Elizabeth Andrews once said, “Volunteers don’t necessarily have the time; they only have the heart.”

Williams was also involved in charitable work in Ireland, such as running 10K races and serving on committees for conservation organizations. Before moving to California, Hamilton had spent long Saturday hours in Phoenix volunteering at a homeless shelter that was funded in a similar way through donations.

“That was a cool job, just like this is a cool job,” Hamilton said. “The NMCRS serves a bigger purpose than what I can do here, but I’m still a small cog in the wheel.”

“The more people get involved, the more we can do and the more we can give back,” Williams said. “I think volunteering is a really, really good way to feel at home in a community. It helps put down roots so you don’t feel isolated.”

According to the NMCRS’s 2023 Impact Report, available on its website, 130,000 customers visited NMCRS’s thrift stores and purchased items. There were 211 NMCRS locations and 4,100 volunteers worldwide. All of this contributed to nearly 200,000 customers receiving assistance through the various NMCRS programs and $50 million in financial assistance.

Interested in volunteering? No experience is necessary. More volunteers mean the thrift store can be open more often during the week and process more donations. Please visit https://support.nmcrs.org/a/volunteer-nmcrs and fill out the form. Alternatively, you can scan the QR code posted on the window outside the NMCRS thrift store.

The NMCRS Thrift Store is located in Building 204, across from the Marine Corps Exchange. Hours are every Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and every first and third Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Donations are accepted during hours only.