KENILWORTH – Brenda Harris has received the Senior of the Year Award from the Township of Wellington North.
For the last five years, Harris has volunteered as manager of the Mount Forest Thrift Shop, which is entirely volunteer operated.
The shop, with more than 100 volunteers, sells quality used clothing and household items.
Funds raised are donated to Cancer Patient Services and the Louise Marshall Hospital Foundation.
The award was presented by Mayor Andy Lennox during a council meeting on June 23, and he called the above “two very important causes in our community.
“Since opening in 2009, more than $1.5 million has been donated by the thrift shop to these two organizations,” he said.
“It takes an army of volunteers to make the thrift shop run as smoothly as it does, and to make the financial impact on our community that it does.
“And that is in great part due to the commitment and leadership of Brenda Harris.”
He told Harris the award was a “small token of our thanks for all your efforts” and presented her with a certificate from the province for Senior of the Year and a certificate from Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae.
Harris told the Advertiser she was “really quite surprised” to receive the award.
“It’s quite lovely – I’m very pleased,” she said.
She explained the history of the thrift shop, which started because a group of people were concerned about a lack of services for cancer patients in and around Mount Forest.
“So they formed a corporation called Cancer Patient Services Corp,” she said, and created the thrift store as a fundraising arm for it.
Cancer Patient Services is a locally run organization with a cancer care coordinator who works out of the Claire Stewart Medical Clinic, Harris said.
The organization supports people “through their cancer journey” in a range of ways, Harris said, including providing no-cost transportation to out-of-town appointments, providing emotional support, and making sure they have any equipment or supplies they need, such as a walker or bottles of Ensure.
“Pretty well most things they might need in the home we would provide at no cost,” she said.
“We support the cancer patients that are a patient of a doctor in Mount Forest or live within a certain radius of Mount Forest,” noted Harris, who is a director for Cancer Patient Services.
She said she volunteers at the thrift shop because she believes “in giving back to the community” and because it “is such a wonderful place to be.”
She said the other volunteers there are “just a great group of people” who range in age from Grade 9 students to about 94 years old.
There’s always room for more volunteers, she noted, and anyone interested can fill in an application, available in the store or on the Louise Marshall Hospital Foundation website.
“We look at the thrift shop as a win-win for the community,” Harris said, as it provides a “place for people to donate items that they may not know what to do with.”
She added it also offers an affordable place for people to shop, it supports two important causes, and it’s a great place for volunteers to socialize and contribute to the community.
The prices are good, the items are quality, and the funds stay within the community, she noted.
“It’s really like a little mini department store,” she said, right downtown on Main Street.
“We get excellent supports from our community – they give back as much as they can.”
Harris also volunteers as a board member and treasurer at Woodland Cemetery and has been a member of the Woodland Springs Women’s Institute for 34 years.
“I certainly believe in doing the best that I can and giving back,” she said.
