Store’s Bottom Line Is Helping the Children

Today, Ana Petrovich will sit at her kitchen table, stuff letters into envelopes and send them to elementary school principals just as she has done for the last two years.

Petrovich is a volunteer at the Child Guidance Center Thrift Shop in Buena Park, and her primary job is to contact local elementary schools asking for donations of children’s clothing, which the store washes, then sells during the summer.

Clothing is just one kind of item found in the shop, in a small shopping complex at 7691 Knott Ave. Books, bedspreads, toys and a variety of household appliances can be found there as well.

“We’ll take anything this little store can handle,” shop co-founder Norma Waller said.

Since it opened its doors Aug. 1, 1970, under the name Raggedy Ann Thrift Shop, the store has raised nearly $500,000 to fund programs run by the Child Guidance Centers of Fullerton and Santa Ana. The centers are private, nonprofit clinics that provide mental health, child abuse and substance abuse counseling services to children and their families.

In 1983, the shop changed its name to the Child Guidance Center Thrift Shop to better identify itself with the organization it financially supports, but the dedication of the store’s volunteers didn’t change.

Petrovich, a retired administrative secretary from Anaheim, is one of more than 75 retired men and women who have volunteered at the shop in one capacity or another over the years.

To Petrovich, it has been a way to give back to the community. “I just enjoy being of use,” she said. “This is very important work we’re doing here.”

Ruth Matheny has worked at the store for 15 years. She is part of a 12-member team of volunteers who categorize and price items to be sold. Matheny said patrons tell her the prices are lower than better-known thrift stores.

“People walk in and tell us all the time what a deal they get here compared to other stores.”

Petrovich believes the Child Guidance Center Thrift Shop has lasted because others have become trendy and no longer do what they were intended to do--provide bargain prices to customers.

For now, the store has no plans to mark its 30th year in business. “We wish we could give more,” Waller said. “But if we can just keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last 30 years we’ll be happy.”

Andre Briscoe can be reached at (714) 966-5848.