Debbie is like a breath of fresh air! You will not meet a more cheery and pleasant volunteer than Debbie at our Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands Brockville ReStore. Debbie has a natural ability to turn a bad day into a great day. She loves people and people are certainly drawn to her.
Debbie has lived in Brockville all of her life and loves this community. Upon leaving high school she got a job at Black and Decker where she worked for 26 years. She said the experience working there was wonderful.
“We were one big, happy family and we all took pride in our jobs, said Debbie and then one day it all ended.”
One of the largest plants in Brockville closed its doors and hundreds of people lost their jobs. Debbie was deeply saddened. She wasn’t just losing her livelihood; she was losing her association with friends that she had known for years.
After some thought Debbie turned her misfortune into an opportunity. This was the perfect time to complete her high school education and so she enrolled at St. Lawrence College in a special program that assessed her
needs and guided her progress. In a very short time Debbie had graduated with her grade 12 after being away from her studies for 26 years.
Debbie also got involved with Heart and Stroke as a dedicated volunteer and loved going from door to door talking to people about the organization and asking them to support the cause. Often, she would knock on the door
of a lonely senior who would invite her in for tea. They looked forward to Debbie’s visits and Debbie not only enjoyed her visits but broke the fundraising record by bringing in over $5,000 for Heart and Stroke.
Debbie then decided with the help of her husband to start a home and office cleaning business which became very successful. Once again Debbie thoroughly enjoyed her work and after 20 years she and her husband decided to retire.
Five years ago, Debbie decided that retirement was great but she needed to get out of the house and be with people again. After a conversation with her daughters, they suggested that she might like to work at our Habitat for Humanity Brockville ReStore. Debbie applied and was called almost immediately.
At the Restore, Debbie is busy accepting donations and testing and cleaning appliances before they go out onto the floor. She says that every day she comes into the store she feels needed and happy to help others.
One day Debbie was assisting a customer with their tile orders and helped them bring them out to their car. She was just finished with that customer when another customer interested in tiles asked for her help as well. Debbie was pleased to be of assistance to both customers and when she returned from helping them one of the Restore employees slapped a sign on her that read TILE QUEEN. Debbie thought that it was so funny that she kept the sign and showed it to others to give them a chuckle too.
Debbie believes that working here is an extremely positive experiences and she encourages others to volunteer.
She says, “volunteering makes you feel good about yourself because you are giving back and I know I am partially the reason that customers come back because they had a good experience with me helping them when they were here.”
Volunteers are the very heart and soul of Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands. There is a great need for more whether it is in the ReStore, on a build site, helping the office staff with technical issues or sharing knowledge of their particular skills that could be useful in a store or an office or on a build.
Please consider donating your time to helping those that help others at Habitat for Humanity Thousand Islands. We are willing to bet that you might just feel good about it too!