Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
American Cancer Society Discovery Shop co-manager Nancy Kleist has been with the Sunnyvale store since its opening in November 1998.
Good Find
The volunteer-run Discovery Shop helps to raise money for cancer research
By Gretchen Knaup
Discovery Shops are upscale second-hand retail stores that benefit the American Cancer Society, all thanks to volunteer service. Setting the Sunnyvale location apart from the rest, is its volunteers' commitment to customer care.
Strategically placed throughout the Bay Area, Discovery Shops are staffed almost completely by volunteers who handle everything from customer service to the store's accounting. Each store has only one paid employee, the store's manager.
"We ideally will have four volunteers at a time. Two in the front doing sales and cashiering, and two in the back," co-manager Nancy Kleist said.
Kleist is acting as one of two co-managers at the Sunnyvale store because the former manager, Frankie Myers is ill with cancer. So the Sunnyvale store has two paid employees, Kleist and co-manager Carol Arnett.
Kleist, a former teacher who owns a Cupertino private school, originally came to the store as a volunteer.
"Frankie was a good friend of my daughter's and was starting the shop just as I was retiring," Kleist said. "My daughter told me she found something I would enjoy doing."
According to Kleist, a team of 43 volunteers run the Sunnyvale store, most of whom are Sunnyvale residents.
"We are like a family here," Kleist said. "What amazes me is how well we work together."
Kleist added that she thinks the one thing that sets Sunnyvale apart from other Discovery Shops is its service. "We hear from everyone at this store that they don't get this kind of service anywhere else," she said. "Service is number one here."
According to Kleist, each volunteer is only required to work one four-hour shift a week, but most go beyond the call of duty and volunteer anywhere from one full eight-hour day to every day of the week.
Emine Kelleci is one of the volunteers who regularly goes beyond what's required of her. "I come here every day because I like doing charity work, and also to improve my English," she said.
Kelleci moved here from Hungary about a year ago. She works six to seven hours a day, almost every day of the week. "It keeps me busy, and I am happy with the people here," she added. "I feel like a student here."
According to Kleist, another very dedicated volunteer is Helen Heynen, 86, who comes in every Friday for eight hours to clean the entire store.
Most of the volunteers have been touched by cancer in some way, Kleist said. Carol Reichner, who also volunteers at the Tech Museum in San Jose, said she has had a couple of family members contract cancer.
Peggy Land, another volunteer, experienced the tragic death of her son six years ago when he succumbed to brain cancer. "My father also passed away due to cancer, and we just found out my mother-in-law has breast cancer," Land said.
Sunnyvale resident Betty Harvey, 43, who survived cancer herself two years ago, was just passing by when she decided to volunteer. "The people were so friendly, so I decided to volunteer one day a week," she explained. "It's very interesting, and I enjoy it."
The Discovery Shops sell only high-end second-hand retail. "We take everything that is good quality," Kleist explained. "We also have a guideline that we can accept nothing under a five-dollar value, and sell nothing under $20."
The store carries furniture, clothing, shoes, antiques, jewelry, books and children's things. The store has an average of 78 customers per day. The Discovery Shops cumulatively brought in approximately $5.2 million in the 1999-2000 fiscal year.
All money raised by the store goes directly to the American Cancer Society, which in turn directs the funds to conducting further research, cancer prevention, fundraising, detection and treatment, patient services and also to management.
Myers opened the Sunnyvale store on in November 1998. Myers was a cancer victim herself and started the store to help in the search for a cure.
The Discovery Shop in Sunnyvale, 1659 Hollenbeck Road, is one of 50 stores in California and 36 more throughout the United States. In the Bay Area, in addition to Sunnyvale, there are store locations in Los Gatos, Menlo Park, San Jose and Los Altos.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
