Angel Guild to celebrate 30 years of helping others

Key Peninsula volunteer group has community roots

Colleen Slater

special to the Gateway

The Angel Guild Thrift Shop will celebrate 30 years of giving with an anniversary celebration on Monday, although the origins go further back than that.

The Key Peninsula Health Clinic started in the parsonage house of Longbranch Church in 1972. Director Jean Broadsack, a nurse practitioner, Nat Knox and Judy Wilson, retired Navy nurses, and additional women helped out.

Some of the helpers paid 25 cents or did a small job to pay for using the bathtub.

The women realized some people needed clean clothes, so clothing was donated and kept in the basement. Clients could give donations or work for what they needed.

In 1978, seven women operated the first thrift shop to help support the clinic. They used a small cabin below 9th Street in Home.

Work parties, including Frank Huff and Sam Hunter, created shelves, a clothes rack and signs, and by March, the Home Thrift and Gift Shop opened for business.

The women drew up bylaws and applied to be a tax-free corporation. Broadsack suggested the name Angel Guild from George Rickert, one of their first patients, who called his wife an angel.

At Ricket’s death, memorials were given in his name, and since Rickert’s daughters, Shirley Olson (first president) and Marge Radonich, were charter members, the name of Angels seemed appropriate.

The first month of operation showed a profit of almost $250, and new members joined.

That year, $1,000 was given to the clinic.

When they needed to give up that building, Don and Shirl Olson offered space at Key Center next to Sukura Nursery.

Jerry Forrester donated a building from Parkland, moved on Rhys Woods’ flatbed truck with the help of firemen Don Olson, Fred Ramsdell and Jim Blundell. These men were named honorary angels to the Guild.

More honorary members donated items and time — six clothing racks from Marcia Smith’s beauty shop, lumber from Len Cedar’s mill for the deck and steps, paint from Key Western Building Center, and shelf building by David “Ole” Olson.

The grand opening for the shop took place on July 18, 1980, and it opened every Friday and Saturday for four hours.

On the first Thursday of each month, bag sales were held for $1 to clear out some inventory. Usable items that hadn’t sold were donated to Goodwill Industries, and that’s still the case.

About four years later, another shift was made to the Key Corral, with the little house moved to provide storage behind the Corral, and in 2006, the Angels moved once again to a larger space next door.

Meanwhile, when the clinic became self-sustaining, the Angels switched gears to donate to local organizations in need.

About $740,000 has been donated to Key Peninsula organizations to date.

Recipients over the years include 4-H, Camps Coleman, Easter Seal and Seymour, Citizens Against Crime, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Habitat for Humanity, KP Civic Center, KP Community Fair, KP Community Services, KP Historical Society, KP News, KP Parks and Recreation, Rocky Bay Nursing Home, local schools and the fire district.

The Guild gave the Key Peninsula Fire Department funds to buy its first defibrillator.

A horse was purchased for Camp Easter Seal one year, named Angel.

Evergreen School is able to participate in a federal grant program, “Reading is Fundamental,” which provides a book giveaway three times a year to each student. Matching funds are required, and Angel Guild has provided that for several years.

Guild membership is in the 40s now, with plenty of space for new members to volunteer their time and talents.