Worker is happy to be helping others at island Goodwill store

With Goodwill Industries' reputation for helping those in need, and with a family atmosphere in the workplace, Cynthia Brown feels at long last she's found a home at the store at 936 Folly Road.

A former in-home health care worker, Brown has been with the Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina outlet just two months. But while at the store, where's she's a salaried associate, Brown feels surrounded by people who care.

"I'm enjoying it very much. It seems like a family atmosphere. The co-workers are all friendly and everyone seems to get along with everyone," she said.

The relationships she's building with co-workers are vital to her, Brown added. "I don't have a family here," she explained.

She said she loves finding things in the donation bins that the repeat customers she's come to know are looking for.

But, "The best part is getting up in the morning and having a job to come to," she added.

Goodwill Industries' mission is helping people with disabilities, economic disadvantages and other employment barriers, its Web site states. Last year, Goodwill, through JobLink Centers, provided career services to more than 17,000 people and employed more than 400 individuals with disabilities.

Brown said she moved to the Lowcountry 10 years ago from Wilmington, N.C., at the invitation of her "best friend for 35 years." But Brown's new life in a new community took an unexpected turn when the friend was diagnosed with brain cancer.

"I took care of her until she died, two years ago," Brown said. She also worked in those years tending to other ill or elderly people. "I was an in-home health care worker. I took care of two elderly people in their home."

After losing her friend, Brown felt it was time for a major change in her life. She believes she's found it at Goodwill, and Goodwill seems just as pleased to have found her.

"She's fairly new, but she sure loves giving to the community," said Jim Kunkle, manager of the James Island Goodwill store.

Joella Kerr, a Goodwill employee who works with Brown, said employees "are very, very close-knit and take care of each other. I enjoy her company," Kerr said of Brown.

Perhaps due to rising unemployment and other economic factors, the store and its stock of used clothing and second-hand housewares, furniture and other goods, is bringing in greater numbers of shoppers, Brown said. "I thought I was at Walmart when I came in here on one Saturday," she said. She said the store usually is busy, right up until each day's closing time.

"I've found a good bargain a few times on my time off."

One of Brown's many assignments is sorting through large plastic bins of freshly donated goods, and separating items the store can market from those it can't. From among TVs, appliances, jewelry, toys, ladies' accessories, shoes, lamps, furniture, pots and pans, dishes, glassware, VCRs, DVD players, and "anything for the house," Brown must decide what customers will buy, and what they might pay for it.

No two days are the same, she added. "Every day, it's all kinds of interesting stuff." The store has a busy drive-up window used by donors who have cleaned out their attics, garages and homes.

Before you can ask Brown if she's seen everything come through but the kitchen sink, she mentions, "We got two sinks in the past week."

Among other interesting donations have been arts and crafts, and framed prints. "We got some African masks, and some stuff I can't even recognize sometimes," she said with a smile.

Brown said she'd like to stay with Goodwill, and perhaps move up to management.

For more on local Goodwill, see www.lowcountrygoodwill.org.

Reach Edward C. Fennell at 937-5560 or efennell@postandcourier.com.