by Kristen Tarzwell, ​Administrative & Program Support

September is here, and summer is giving way to my favorite season: fall. I’m looking forward to cooler days, cozy evenings with a blanket, and a warm mug in hand. I also hope the cooler weather helps ease the fires in our region, so the only smoke we see comes from fireplaces and bonfires.​

The beauty of this system is that there is no longer a password server to hack into. The passkey is stored on your personal device. Unless someone physically has your device and knows your PIN (or is able to steal your finger or your face!), the connection to the service cannot be unlocked. Even if the passkey was somehow intercepted in transit, it would be useless without physical access to the connecting device.

In addition, unlike passwords, which are established as single credential per account, it’s possible to have multiple passkeys to access the same account. For example, once you’ve established a passkey with your phone, you can use that proof of access to confirm a passkey on your tablet. All of your passkeys are securely stored in the password manager you are using just like passwords, except that there is no visible password.

All of your passwords and passkeys are also backed up into your cloud account on your platform of choice and shared with your other devices that have access to that account. In layman’s terms, once you’ve created a passkey on your phone, your tablet and your computer will also have access to that same service, as long as they are connected to the same Apple, Google or Microsoft account.

You can also create more than one entirely unique passkey to access the same service. This means that potentially, a husband could have access to an account using a passkey, while the wife can also have a different passkey to the same account. No more unsecure password sharing with your family and friends! (This feature is not yet universal, but will become commonplace as more services support passkey technologies.)

If you get a new device and need to connect it to your online services, you simply log into your cloud account that contains your passkeys. As long as you still have at least one device with access to your cloud account, you just confirm your access on that device, and it will enable the new device.

Why should you care about passkeys? Frankly, in the imminent future, you won’t have a choice. The large, before-mentioned companies have made it clear that they have had enough with old-school password technologies and plan to make passkeys mandatory. Microsoft is already notifying business customers that passkeys will be required later this fall. Apple, Google and other large companies are sure to follow.

Realistically, passwords are still going to be around for a while. Adding passkey support to all websites and online services will take time and resources. In the interim, even services that support passkeys still use passwords as a fallback, which somewhat defeats the purpose of passkeys. But in a decade or so, passwords will cease to exist, and all access will be done exclusively through passkeys.

It’s understandable if you are resistant to adopting this new security technology. New is scary. But rest assured, the smartest minds in the tech industry got together for over a decade to develop this. It’s simple, elegant, and much more secure than the technology it is replacing.

For more information on FIDO and passkeys, visit passkeys.com. In particular, there is a well-written article explaining the differences between passkeys and passwords written in plain English at passkeys.com/passkey-vs-password.

​After marrying young (and gaining a lifelong sister in Judy Ford) Colleen spent time working at a number of local businesses (including packing fruit alongside her mother one summer to earn the money to buy her first car) before joining Sav-Mart in 1968. Working her way up to the Housewares Buyer and Manager, she deeply valued the trust the family-owned company placed in her — earned by her hard work, organization, level head, practicality and dedication.

She found love again and married Kennard Hall in 1982 before then enduring the devastation of his untimely loss in a car accident.

From her early years, she pitched in wherever family needed her - learning and then upholding the strong generational tradition of caring for family. She fondly remembered hours spent in companionship with her grandmother Anna Dunnagan and aunt Mary Dunnagan - helping out with whatever was needed, from canning fruit to appointments and errands.

Colleen retired from Sav-Mart after 31 years in 1999, a bit early in order to have the flexibility to provide more care for her aging mother, Dorothy. Finding she still needed something to keep herself busy, she turned her energies and her care back to her community and began volunteering at the YWCA. She dedicated nearly 25 years to her extensive volunteer work with the organization. She especially enjoyed helping staff many estate sales over the years to benefit the organization.
Always moving and busy, Colleen was devoted to her daily walk. She loved seeing the seasons change along the canal, picking up litter in her neighborhood and keeping tabs on what was going on in the surrounding area every morning. In the 1990s her daily walks led to becoming friendly with a neighbor - who was, somehow, always out working in his yard or checking the mail as she walked past. Before too long Joseph Huebel became more than just a neighbor, he became family.

In her 50s, 60s, and 70s Colleen (and Joe) enjoyed cruises, traveling near and far, car shows, RV trips, daily walks, and gardening. She had a special fondness (and knack) for vegetable gardens and cacti. Her travels took her from Alaska, to Hawai’i, to Panama, Mexico, Europe and many points in between.

She made her last home at Bonaventure of East Wenatchee where she felt very well taken care of by the kind and attentive staff who were always especially happy to see her out walking when she felt well.

Colleen was preceded in death by her grandmother Anna Dunnagan, mother, Dorothy Derrick, husband Kennard Hall, brother Patrick Finnigan, and sister-in-law Karen Finnigan.

She was survived by her companion of 30+ years, Joseph Huebel Jr., of East Wenatchee; brother Tim (Connie Powell) Finnigan, of Spokane; nieces Maureen (Chris) Redfield, and Megan (Keefe Rayfield) Pardee, both of Portland; niece Tracy (Don) Wheeler, of Wenatchee; nephew Troy Owens, of Wenatchee; grandchildren Michael (Brittany) Huebel, Jordan (Pam) Stengrim and Amber Taylor, all of East Wenatchee; and many great-grandchildren, great-nieces and great-nephews.
Her family hosted a celebration of Colleen’s life at Eastmont Community Church (783 4th St NE, East Wenatchee) on August 11.
​
Donations in her name to local organizations close to her heart would be appreciated: Wenatchee Valley Humane Society or Foothills Community Center (formerly the Wenatchee Senior Center)

Stephanie Snitily, Regional Immunization Coordinator with the Chelan-Douglas Health District, agreed to meet with me to answer these questions. Here is the transcript of our conversation, with some light editing for clarity. The inverview is available in its entirety on our podcast, The Buzz, available on YouTube as a video and as audio-only on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts and other major podcast networks.

Russ: What are the recommended vaccines for older adults?

Stephanie: Starting at 50 years old, a couple of the vaccines that are currently recommended are pneumococcal and a shingles vaccine. And then also certain populations between 50 and 74 years old that can also get the RSV vaccine. And those are for people who have specific health conditions that put them, even though they’re younger, at greater risk for complications if they were to become infected with that illness. Then we kind of jump up to RSV. That’s recommended for healthy individuals 75-plus.

Then for all folks, really, getting your annual flu shot and COVID vaccine are also very important, and then every 10 years making sure that your tetanus booster is up to date.

Russ: So pneumococcal, just to make sure that we put it in layman’s terms for people: that’s pneumonia, right?

Stephanie: Correct, that’s your pneumonia vaccination. And that protects you against bacterial pneumonia that can get in your lungs. Also, one of the complications from that is it can become what we call invasive, meaning it gets into areas of the body where it really doesn’t belong, such as the bloodstream, or around the lining of your brain and spinal cord, which can cause meningitis.

Russ: Recently, I went to the pharmacy and they had recommended that I get the pneumococcal vaccine. And I told them, “Oh, I had one a few years ago.” They said, “You really should get this one because some things have changed.” So I thought maybe you could elaborate on that.

Stephanie: Sure. So there are a number of pneumococcal vaccines on the market. Some cover different serotypes [variations] of the pneumococcal bacteria. So some contain 15, some 20, some 21. They all have certain beneficial characteristics. So just because you started out with one of the pneumococcal vaccines, because some other ones have come out subsequently, you can gain even more protection from getting that additional vaccine taken care of.

Right now, what happens is children get vaccinated as infants because they do have higher risk for invasive disease if they do become infected with the pneumococcal bacteria. So they kind of get those base doses, and then as an adult, as we mentioned, when you turn 50, then you get that subsequent dose which covers a few more things and provides different levels of protection than the shots that the infants get.

Russ: When we talk about older people being at higher risk, the reason for that is as we age, our immune systems don’t work as well. So just because you were healthy and weren’t at risk when you were 50, it’s different as you age. And I think that’s what we’re trying to do is extend people’s immune system as they get older.

Stephanie: Right. And how vaccines work is they actually do work off of your immune system, because what it does is it stimulates your immune system to create the antibodies you would need to fight off the infection if you were to become exposed to it. So it’s really important to get those doses of vaccine at the correct age where you’re going to get the maximum effect from them, because as you do get older, you want to make sure you have as high protection as you can.

Russ: How often should you get the RSV vaccine?

Stephanie: Currently, that’s a one-time dose.

Russ: And flu shots and COVID shots are...

Stephanie: Those are annually. It’s really important to get that flu shot every year. And for folks that are 65 and over, they actually recommend two COVID shots given six months apart during the respiratory season.

Russ: So, one of the confusions that people sometimes have with vaccines is you have ones like measles, for example, that are lifetime vaccines, so you get it one time and you’re good for life. Vaccines like COVID, flu, and influenza, however, are annual.

Even though you get them annually, the efficacy rates on them — or in other words, how effective they are against actually contracting the 
disease — are significantly lower. If you get a measles vaccine, you’re pretty much not going to get measles. But if you get a flu vaccine, you could still get the flu.
I think sometimes people hear that and they’re like, “Well, why would I get those if they don’t work?” But they really do, and I think maybe you could explain that a bit more.

Stephanie: Sure. So with vaccines like measles, where again, that’s a one-time — you get it as a child, two doses, and then you’re done for a lifetime. And some of these other vaccines,  like measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, polio — those are what we call “stable.” They don’t mutate, they don’t modify. So that’s why if you have a really effective vaccine, all you need is those one or two doses, whatever the series is. Usually they’re given during childhood, and then you’re done.

Diseases like flu, you know, we always hear about, “What strains are going to be circulating this year?” It’s a best-educated process that they use to determine what strains are going to be in each year’s flu vaccine. And it varies a little bit from year to year. They look at what is going on globally. Of course, the Southern Hemisphere, our seasons are flipped, so they kind of look at what’s going on down there before they decide what we’re going to do here in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s why it’s a little bit harder to really dial it in as exact compared to some of these other vaccines.

So even though it may not be a perfect match, it’s going to be close enough that you’re going to get protection. And if you do get ill, the severity of your illness is going to be greatly reduced. And also any of the extra complications that can occur from those illnesses are also dramatically diminished because you do have at least some level of protection.

It’s really important to get [annual flu shots] because, as we mentioned earlier, it works off your immune system. So let’s say I get my flu shot — I’m a middle-aged woman — my response and my level of antibody is going to be much greater than, say, my elderly grandmother. That’s why it’s still important, even if you’re young and healthy, to get that flu shot, because you could be around relatives, friends, whether they’re older or sometimes smaller, too. Children under six months can’t get the flu vaccine, so they’re still susceptible to the flu. That’s why it’s really important to get these vaccines to provide protection across the lifespan.

Russ: I have personal anecdotes. I got influenza in 1997, when I was in my mid-20s, and was not vaccinated. I have asthma. And so when I got the flu, I was laid out on the couch and could not get up for two weeks. I was really sick.

I caught Influenza A last year while I was on vacation, but I was vaccinated. I actually didn’t think I had the flu, because my symptoms were so mild that it didn’t occur to me that it was the flu until my daughter, who’s a nurse... and being prepared as a nurse, she had a test kit with her for COVID and flu. I tested positive for Flu A. Unfortunately, I got everybody else sick. And there were people that were around me that caught it that got pretty sick because they had not gotten the vaccine. I felt really badly about that.

So, it’s not definitive that the flu shot that I got kept me from getting sicker, but it’s pretty likely.

The two times that I tested positive for COVID during the pandemic — I got all the shots — both times that I got COVID, I was so mildly ill that I thought it was allergies. But I was infectious, and so I still quarantined.

My point is that those vaccines, like flu and COVID, are designed to prevent serious illness. There’s not really a guarantee that you’re not going to get sick, because the efficacy rates can be actually fairly low. With the flu, it can be as low as 40 percent. So you could still get sick, but hopefully you’re not going to get as sick. And by not getting as sick, hopefully you’ll not get other people as sick as well.

Stephanie: Right. Also, looking at severe complications — trying to prevent ER and urgent care visits, trying to prevent hospitalizations. When you look at the statistics from the ‘24-’25 COVID vaccine, they found that they could reduce the risk of hospitalization by 45 to 46 percent in adults 65 and over. So that’s pretty significant. If you can stay out of the hospital, I think that’s a big goal for all of us.

Russ: So, the shingles vaccine... For those of you that aren’t aware, if you had chickenpox as a kid, or were immunized against chickenpox, you already have the virus in your system that creates shingles. 

Stephanie: What happens is the virus that causes chickenpox — even when you get vaccinated — because you get a little amount of that virus, that’s what stimulates your immune system to create the antibodies against it. If someone has the natural disease... even though you get over the illness, some of that virus remains in our body and attaches to our nerve ganglia. That’s a big fancy word for just where our nerves come together in our body.

What can happen as we get older, or we go through a significant health issue and our immune system drops, that’s when the virus takes advantage of that. It’s very opportunistic, and it’ll reactivate and then manifest itself in what we call shingles. And if you’ve ever had shingles or seen someone with shingles, you’ll notice how it runs along your nerve lines, your nerve tracks — so around your face, your neck, certain parts of your torso also. And yes, they can be rather painful outbreaks and can be quite severe. So getting the vaccine, it just keeps a lid on the virus that is still present in your body so it can’t re-manifest.

Russ: Most insurance covers shingles when you turn 50. On my 50th birthday, it was my birthday present to myself! 

My dad had shingles and it was pretty bad. He told me just how painful it was. It got up into his eye. It’s not fun. So the fact that we have that vaccine available now —  once you turn 50, get your shingles vaccine because you can prevent a lot of discomfort.

Russ: Most health insurance covers immunizations, right?

Stephanie: Yes, many do, but if you ever have any questions, you should always just call your insurance carrier to get clarification on that. But of course, if someone has Medicare or Medicaid, those vaccines will be covered.

Russ: And it’s an ounce of prevention type of thing. It’s a lot less cost and effort to get a vaccine than to deal with the consequences of getting the disease.

Stephanie: Right. And what’s so convenient now is there’s so many places that — you know, you’re not just locked into going to your doctor’s office anymore for a vaccination and making an appointment, and all of those things that are involved with that. You can go to basically any pharmacy and get these vaccinations done, and they’ll bill your private insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, whatever you have. It makes it a convenient for folks to be able to just pop into their local pharmacy where they maybe already pick up other prescriptions. They’re already on file, and they can just get that vaccination done by the pharmacist.

Russ: So let’s talk a bit about vaccine safety, because there’s a lot of misinformation out there. And you know, it’s — anything to do with medicine is typically, is the benefit greater than the consequences of not doing something? And it’s actually very, very clear with vaccines. There’s 75 years worth of research with vaccines that shows how safe they are. You might hear of somebody getting seriously ill, or somebody who says that they know someone who died because of a vaccine — it’s very, very rare.

Stephanie: Nothing’s 100 percent, and unfortunately we do hear of cases where people have a severe reaction to a vaccination they may have been given. However, one thing we need to keep in mind is millions of people in the United States get vaccinated every year, from infants on through older adults. And it’s very, again, very not common, I’ll say, for people to have any kind of reaction.

And also, before a vaccine comes out on the market, usually they go through years and years of product development, research, testing, before they even try it on human subjects. So when we get a new vaccine introduced into the market, it’s gone through a lot of rigorous testing and research to make sure that any potential side effects of the shot are outweighed by the value and the health protection measures that it’s going to provide.

Russ: Statistically, I looked it up: you are more likely to get struck by lightning than to become seriously ill from a vaccination. It’s that rare.

Stephanie: And there are systems in place with the CDC and the FDA that if a provider feels that one of their patients may have suffered a severe reaction from a vaccine, there’s a mechanism to report that so that it can get looked into.

Russ: You still might have some mild symptoms after receiving a vaccine. The whole point of a vaccine is it triggers your immune system. So it’s not uncommon to feel a little off the next day. For example, when I got that pneumonia shot this summer, I didn’t really think much of it until the next day, and I was like, “Man, I feel really tired today.” And then I remembered that I got the vaccine. It actually took me about 36 hours to be 100 percent afterwards.

Stephanie: Yeah, so most people, when they do get a vaccine, the most common typical side effects are some soreness, redness at the injection site. And then again, for the next 24 to 48 hours, feeling a little tired, a little sluggish. And again, that’s just your body working, your immune system working to create those antibodies that it needs to keep you protected.

Russ: When do you recommend getting flu and COVID shots for the winter? Because these diseases do tend to spread more when the weather gets cold and people are indoors more.

Stephanie: Congregating more, yes. And typically in Washington State, historically, our peak flu season has been in January. The flu vaccine is good for about six months. That’s its peak window of highest protection. Also, remember: it takes about two weeks for that vaccine to kick in. So even though it’s in your arm, it takes about two weeks to get the full amount of protection. So you kind of want to plan ahead for that.

Typically, most people start getting their flu shot around the end of September, going into October, so that they do have that protection through the winter months, and then right before we do start coming indoors more, being more congregate, and sharing air space with folks.

Russ: One last thing. So, there’s always this conspiracy theory out there about vaccines causing autism. And I keep hearing it come up, and I cringe every time I hear it. Maybe you can talk a little bit about this from a medical perspective. There’s basically one study ever that found a link, right?

Stephanie: Well, there was the Wakefield study, which has since been debunked, and the physician that conducted that study actually lost his medical license to practice in the UK because they found a lot of flaws with his study.

Every 5 to 10 years, the autism question does come up. And this is probably one of the most frequently studied issues around vaccines, is around “do vaccines cause autism?” And at this point, there’s no 100 percent causal link that that is what happens.

Ater the Wakefield study came out, they saw a really dramatic drop in the number of MMR vaccines that were being administered to children. So then they did a longitudinal study. And if you have your baseline — this is your baseline of how many kids are being diagnosed with autism in the UK — well, after they stopped giving the MMR vaccine, the rate of MMR went up, and the autism stayed flat. So you would have thought it would have been the other way, right? So that again, just an anecdotal study to show that if that would have been the cause, you would have seen the autism rates drop.

Russ: The other thing is that nothing happens in a vacuum. And there are infinite numbers of other environmental factors that could be causing the marked increase in diagnoses of autism in the last 20 years.

Stephanie: Well, and I think too, as we’ve learned more about the illness itself, they’re finding children who may not have originally been diagnosed because they’re learning more and more about it and what that actually entails for a child to have that diagnosis.

Russ: Same goes for other neurodivergencies like ADHD. Because there’s more awareness about those disorders now, more people are being diagnosed.

Stephanie: Yes. It’s just — you can liken it to when we got better tests for cancer, you know? When you can find it better, you are able to identify those people and get them whatever help they need, which is great.

Russ: Anything else that you wanted to mention that we didn’t cover?

Stephanie: No, I think we covered everything really well. Just want to remind people, if you ever have any questions or concerns, your provider is a great person to talk to to get all the correct information to find out what vaccines are the best for you.

August brings some big changes to the Program Director’s office. The biggest of those changes being the arrival of Lydia’s beautiful baby girl! I know many of you enjoyed checking up on Lydia during her pregnancy and are just as excited as I am to welcome the newest bundle of joy to the Foothills Community Center family!  

With that being said, with one change often comes another. Lydia will be enjoying a well-earned maternity leave for the next few months to adjust to her newly expanded family. That means that I will be temporarily stepping into her, very difficult to fill, shoes.

Page layout applications are specifically for creating flyers, newsletters, newspapers, brochures, books and other documents that require precise layout of graphics, images and text. They include tools like the ability to wrap text around objects and fine tune how text appears on the page, such as kerning, scaling and tracking.

Most graphic designers in the 1990s used Aldus/Adobe Pagemaker or QuarkXpress, which were professional-grade page layout applications that offered much more precise layout tools and color management tools for press-quality production. 

(Fun fact: my first job in 1987 was working part time for the off-campus housing office at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. I used Pagemaker 1.0 on an original black & white Macintosh computer to design brochures. That was quite the experience!)

QuarkXpress was considered the industry standard for over a decade.

However, in 1999, Adobe released inDesign, a totally new page layout platform. They nicknamed it “Quark Killer” because their intent was to dethrone Quark as the industry standard. While it took about a decade, Adobe ultimately won this war. Even now, inDesign is considered the professional standard for page layout.

However, using their product is not cheap. Now that Adobe has moved entirely to a subscription model, a license to use their full suite of applications (including inDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and others), costs $55-$70 per month or more, depending on the version and the duration of the commitment, and that is for one person to use it. Even though as a nonprofit we receive a discounted rate, it would still cost us $35 per month, per person. Since Jennifer Scott and I both work on the newsletter, we would have to pay $70 per month (plus tax). And since it’s a subscription, we would have to keep paying it indefinitely if we wanted to have access to our design files.

Because The Livewire was long overdue for a design overhaul, I rebuilt the template from scratch during the summer of 2024. While I had quite a bit of experience working with inDesign, I decided to rebuild the newsletter in Publisher since the license was included in our nonprofit Microsoft 365 subscriptions that we receive at minimal cost. While dated, the most recent version of Publisher has most of the tools to design a newspaper and export the print file for production at the World Press.

Unfortunately, last fall, Microsoft announced that they had declared Publisher “end of life,” meaning they were no longer going to update it. This was understandable: the application is 35 years old and desktop publishing is outside of Microsoft’s market focus. However, they are not just ending development — they are literally shutting it down. As of October 2026, Publisher will not even open, meaning that we will no longer be able to create new documents or open previous ones we made.

Since I didn’t want to commit us to inDesign subscriptions, I started researching other options and discovered that Canva (the online graphic design application for non-designers) had purchased a company named Serif and made their application, Affinity Studio, free for everyone to use.

I like free…

And since we already have free, nonprofit access to Canva for our organization, we also have the advantage of additional tools, including Canva integration.

After graduating from the University of Idaho and teaching a year in White Salmon, Wash., Don married Joan Jacobsen of Burien, Wash. in 1964. They lived in Corvallis, Ore. while Don completed a master's degree at Oregon State, then moved to Kitsap County, Wash. where he taught science at North Kitsap High School. They raised their four children, Merlin, June, Kevin and Brian, in Poulsbo, then Kingston. In 1988, Don & Joan moved to Lima, Peru, where Don taught at Colegio Roosevelt until Joan died of cancer in 1997.

In 1999, Don married Barbara Taylor of Stettler, Alberta. They resided in N. Seattle for a short span; then they soon moved to Spain, where Don was the head of the science department at the American School of Madrid. They enjoyed traveling internationally together. They retired to Omak in 2007, and Don kept active by working part-time as a substitute teacher in the local schools. In 2020, they moved to Wenatchee, where Barbara lovingly cared for Don at home until his Alzheimer's reached the final stage.

After a short stay in hospital in May, because of complications, Don was then moved to Cashmere Post Acute on June 9. Upon falling July 5 and sustaining a broken hip, Don was admitted back to hospital where he received loving care until his passing, July 9.

Don was preceded in death by his first wife Joan, his parents, and brothers Bobby and Harry.

Don is survived by his wife Barbara; brother Art of New Plymouth, Idaho; and his children:

• Merlin & Tina Lee in Greer, S.C.
• June Lee in Townsend, Mont.
• Kevin & Robin Lee in Milford, Ohio
• Brian & Sue Lee in Lake Forest Park, Wash.

He loved his six granddaughters enormously:

• Erika, working in the ministry in Kentucky and Tennessee
• Amanda and Kevin Cavazos in Bow, Wash.
• Alayna in Milford, Ohio
• Kendra, Kayla, and Kenzie in Lake Forest Park, Wash.

He also leaves behind several brothers and sisters-in-law, many nephews and nieces and their families, along with an innumerable number of friends and former students.

A service was held Saturday, July 25th at 1:00 PM at Foothills Community Center. Interment was Monday, July 27th at Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton.

The family would like to thank the staff at Central Hospital and Cashmere Post Acute for the care administered to Don while a patient there, also for their helpful input.

Please express your thoughts and memories in the online guestbook.

“I’m also looking for volunteers to do like three hour days one day a week or two days a week, and those times are 9-12 or 1-4,” Shannon said. Volunteers will be “sorting clothes, hanging clothes, tagging clothes, steaming clothes…” Shannon laughed. “It’s a lot of clothes! Clothes are our biggest seller, so there is definitely a need for that all the time.”

If you or someone you know is interest in paid or volunteer positions, please see Shannon in person.

Quality of donations is an ongoing issue. The Thrift Shop is appreciative of the amount of donations that the community brings; however, it’s important that people use discretion. The reality is that a significant amount of the donations we receive are not in saleable condition.

“We lost our place that we used to send stuff to recycle clothing, so we don’t have an outsource anymore for clothes that are ripped and stained, dirty. We don’t do much laundry here, so everything needs to come in clean,” Shannon explained. “A lot of the clothes right now — I hate to say it — but they’re going in the garbage because we get a lot of stuff, unfortunately, that is just not usable.”

“We wash a little bit of the dishes [that are donated], but a lot of times when stuff comes in so dirty, it’s just not worth the time it takes to clean them,” Shannon said. 

It’s very time consuming and it’s not cost-effective, especially with our limited staff and volunteers. Items that are chipped or broken cannot be sold. All of this extra garbage is a huge expense for Foothills Community Center. “We spend over $14,000 per year on garbage pickup and nearly 75 percent of that comes from discarded Thrift Shop donations,” said Lisa Blair, Executive Director of Foothills Community Center. “We very much appreciate the donations people bring us, but we ask that they avoid bringing us items that are damaged, broken or beyond their usable life.”

“We got our dumpster emptied last night, and we probably have it at least halfway full already,” Shannon said. “We just had to go to a bigger dumpster. And we share that with our kitchen. The kitchen has priority because of meeting health codes, so we’re the ones that end up sitting on our garbage if it can’t fit in there.”

Overflowing garbage is also a security issue for the Center. There are people who roam the neighborhood after hours and break into the garbage to take things, leaving a mess.

For the same reason, it's important that people do not leave donations after hours. Leaving items in front of the donation area attracts thieves. 

The Thrift Shop accepts donations from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Monday through Friday. They do not accept donations on Saturdays due to limited staff. The donation area is at Suite D, which is the farthest door on the right side of the building. There is an A-board indicating the location.

Donation restrictions. There are times when the Thrift Shop receives donations faster than they can be processed. Unfortunately, this means that they occasionally need to restrict donations of certain items. For example, for most of last June, they were unable to accept clothing. Due to limited space and personnel, they only have so much room for intake and processing.

We understand that this can be frustrating. When there is an extended restriction, we post the details on our social media accounts and on the Thrift Shop page on our website at foothillscenter.com/thriftshop. 

Pricing at the Thrift Shop has not changed. “Very few things have changed with our pricing since I’ve been here. That’s 13 years since we really haven’t made any big changes,” Shannon said. “We’ve never sat down and and decided we were going to increase our prices. It could just be that maybe we’re getting some nicer things and there are higher quality items that we are putting out.” Name brand, designer clothing, for example is going to demand a higher price than lower-quality, discount brands.

“We want to sell stuff and we want to move stuff, so we try to be real reasonable,” Shannon said.
The Thrift Shop also sometimes receives “vintage” items, collectibles of higher value, and those are priced after researching their market value.

For example, most drinking glasses in the store are priced at 50 cents. However, there are some collector glasses and ones from the 1950s. There is a collector’s market for these and they are priced higher. Even then, these items are priced lower than online venues, like eBay.

Is there a schedule for sales? The short answer is no, sales are not usually planned far in advance. Instead, Shannon decides on sales based on incoming donations vs. how inventory is moving.

At the same time, it’s a safe bet to expect sales during certain times of year. For example, by mid-summer, the Thrift Shop typically discounts summer clothing to make room for fall clothing. This year in particular, they received so many donations of summer clothes that they have been running a 50 percent off sale on summer clothes for over a month.

Also, the last few days before and the week following a major holiday, remaining themed items for that holiday are sold at a discount.

The Thrift Shop no longer has dressing rooms. A few years ago, Shannon made the difficult decision to close the dressing rooms. While this can be frustrating to shoppers, it was necessary for security reasons. 

“We had a limit of three items. People never listened to that. Our dressing rooms were clear around the corner so we can’t watch them,” Shannon said.

“We also had a lot of theft in there unfortunately. I need one volunteer all day just to deal with the dressing rooms. I have so many other things that take priority. Without having someone to monitor them, it was a big loss for us.” She laughed, “If somebody wanted to volunteer to just manage the dressing rooms, that would be great.”

The building expansion project will resolve many issues. Once Foothills Community Center has completed its planned building expansion, it will create a large, open retail space that will resolve many of the issues currently facing the Thrift Shop.

For example, the shop currently uses a number of converted activity rooms, which creates a very difficult floor space to manage. Having one large retail space will be more efficient and secure. It will also dramatically increase available square footage.

“I didn’t make a lot of friends after [the Center reopened from the COVID-19 pandemic] because I took over so many rooms. But our Thrift Shop makes a lot of money. Each room that I have is worth thousands of dollars a month,” Shannon said.

In fact, the Thrift Shop generates nearly two-thirds of the revenue needed to operate the Community Center. Without it, the Center couldn’t exist.

For just $15, you’ll enjoy juicy hamburgers and hot dogs grilled by our famous Applarians, Debbie’s legendary potato salad, baked beans, chips, drinks and delicious ice cream sundaes. We’re also excited to welcome Lance Tigner and the Easy Street Men’s Choir, who will entertain us with their incredible voices and a wide variety of musical favorites.

There will be plenty of games to enjoy, including cornhole, Plinko, horseshoes, and other outdoor favorites — although with this summer heat, we’ll probably be playing many of them indoors! Mark your calendar for Saturday, Aug. 22, with the festivities beginning promptly at 6 p.m. Last year’s barbecue was a full house, so be sure to get your tickets early before they’re gone!

The fun continues Saturday, Sept. 19, when we welcome The Wenatchee Big Band for a special dance from 7–9 p.m. Tickets are available at the reception desk for $15, and we expect another great turnout. Be sure to purchase your tickets soon so you don’t miss this wonderful evening of music and dancing.

Many of you have noticed an empty office where our Program Director, Lydia, usually keeps busy. We’re happy to share that on July 23 at 5:56 a.m., Lydia welcomed a beautiful baby girl! Hallie Rose weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 19½ inches long. Congratulations to Lydia and her family — we couldn’t be happier for them! Lydia plans to return after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, Kristen will be happy to assist you with room rentals, trip information, registrations, and just about anything else you may need. Lydia’s monthly article will also take a short break and will return after the first of the year.

Kristen has also stepped into another important role by taking the lead on this year’s Holiday Gift Fair. Planning is already underway for what has traditionally been the Center’s largest event of the year. Booth registration will begin in September, and information will soon be sent to everyone who has expressed interest in selling their handcrafted items. We’re looking forward to another fantastic event!

The past several months has been especially busy as we prepared for our Annual Meeting and welcomed several new members to our Board of Directors. We are pleased to introduce Jeff Gomes as our new First Vice Chair, Keith Kirkpatrick as Director C, and Nick Davis and Mike Norton as Members-at-Large. We also congratulate Marco Martinez, who previously served as a Member-at-Large and has now been elected Second Vice Chair. Our Board is made up of dedicated volunteers who generously give their time and talents to help guide the Center. I know I am personally grateful for each one of them.

There never seems to be a lull in the activity here at the center, and currently I have been working hard preparing three major grant applications. Two are focused on funding our future building expansion, while another will help support our day-to-day operating expenses. We continue making steady progress toward our expansion project and have now raised more than $450,000. One of our next important milestones will be completing a survey of the property, an essential step before construction can begin. While it may sometimes seem quiet from the outside, there is a tremendous amount happening behind the scenes as we work to make this exciting vision a reality. If you would like to support the building project, please contact Jim Tarbert, Chairman of the Board, or me. We would be happy to visit with you about how you can help.

A heartfelt thank you goes to Wenatchee Memory Care for their generous donation of N-95 masks to Foothills Community Center. Masks are available on the table near the coffee bar. Please feel free to take what you need — and you're welcome to pick up extras for family and friends as well. 

Finally, a friendly reminder that Foothills Community Center will be closed Monday, Sept. 7, in observance of Labor Day. The Second Chance Thrift Store will also be closed on Saturday, Sept. 5, and Monday, Sept. 7. We hope everyone enjoys a safe, relaxing holiday weekend!

As always, thank you for being part of the Foothills Community Center family. We appreciate each one of you and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events!

~ Lisa Blair, Executive Director