Goldie Wulderk's Thrift Shop & Legacy wit Sandy Feddema
This visit with Sandy Feddema highlights the legacy of Goldie Wulderk, who founded the Senior Thrift and Caring Center, emphasizing its role in the community.
Sandy Feddema and Meg McCormick Hoerner discuss the thrift shop's operations, the importance of donations, and the community engagement fostered through the center. The tour showcases the various items available, the history behind them, and the ongoing efforts to support those in need.takeawaysGoldie Wulderk's legacy continues through the Senior Thrift Shop.
The thrift shop serves as a vital community resource.Donations are essential for the shop's operations.The shop provides affordable goods to the community.Community engagement is a key focus of the thrift shop.Local history is preserved through the items sold.The shop aims to reduce waste by reusing items.Sandy emphasizes the joy of meeting new people.The center distributes food and other essential items.The shop operates with flexible hours to accommodate visitors.
Speaker 1 (00:09.678)
In 1976 Goldie Wulderk launched the Senior Thrift and Caring Center in Upper Deerfield before moving it to downtown Bridgeton in 1984. Goldie left us in 2022, but her presence lives on through family and friends who continue her legacy by operating the center to this very day. And the center remains a vital link to many in the community through the distribution of food and other items to those in need.
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Please enjoy this walkthrough tour with local beacon Sandy Feddema and Meg McCormick Hoerner.
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Speaker 3 (00:54.398)
And we're back with Sandy Feddema. No worse for the wear. So tell me where we are today, Sandy.
Here I am.
Speaker 2 (01:00.558)
Okay, we're in Goldie's thrift shop, the senior thrift shop. It goes back about 50 years. They would be knitting for the homeless and giving food and we still try to keep up with the tradition. Goldie passed at 95, but I really do believe that she's here. Yeah, she's definitely here. And...
So what we do is we find people that like everything else in my life that people like to get rid of or donate and then people would like. We can give away clothes for a dollar and everything to keep things moving and out of the landfill. When you make two people happy with one transaction, it makes three people. So I'm in my own.
and my own space.
Do you accept donations?
Absolutely, yes, very much so. We thrive on that.
Speaker 3 (02:10.338)
What kind of things do you like and what kind of things do you not take?
We like to find things that people have never seen before, that have been looking for for a long time, or useful clothes that are useful, kitchen gadgets that are useful, local history, almost anything. We get people looking for everything. We have a wide array of customers with different needs.
And it's fun. We meet so many nice people and we try. We try. There's actually three floors involved with this. Yes, the second floor is full. It's got a 19th century elevator that's working. You may want to take a picture of which I think is just
You've got a good crowd in here.
Speaker 2 (03:10.284)
Cool as beans. You're heading in the right direction. And don't film the messes. Avoid filming the mess. Okay, you're doing good. You keep going through. This is a newly added curtain.
Keep heading back.
Speaker 2 (03:34.286)
this is Flavia's travel room, which sometimes is very difficult to walk through, but she's been threatening to have her meeting here, so I cleaned it all up.
Down below is the basement which fills up occasionally with water since we're so close to the river. We don't use that too often.
Speaker 2 (04:03.306)
And we want to go upstairs. This is our new employee. She just came. She's looking for a new home if anybody's interested.
Speaker 2 (04:23.278)
let me show you. Let me not miss this. We walked right by the walk-in freezer, refrigerator, that when we get produce in the summer...
we're able to keep things cold. It's a big refrigerator, so that if there's anybody out there who has surplus food, it would really be a big thing here. We also have a large freezer in the back.
Speaker 2 (05:05.166)
Ohhhh
This is our freezer. Let me open this up. The light just burned out today, of course.
Speaker 2 (05:18.914)
Are you okay to come up?
Speaker 2 (05:23.015)
Ugh. Am I okay to come up-
I think coming down is going to be the problem.
yeah, I know how to get down. I've already found a short way down. fall.
Speaker 2 (05:42.358)
This is
Speaker 2 (05:47.522)
This is filled to the back with stuff too.
Let me show you the refrigerator.
Speaker 2 (06:06.998)
This is our old hand turn.
Elevator.
Speaker 2 (06:18.06)
that they would have brought stuff up on. And it still functions perfectly, but the freezer is right below here now, so we can't crank it down.
Speaker 2 (06:36.27)
That's amazing. is. And there's an apartment on the third floor, which I'm hoping to get fixed up and have a full time trading the space for handyman and to fix the rest of the building up.
So you're looking for someone to...
Looking for someone to, who needs a room, who's very talented to, are you okay?
good.
Speaker 2 (07:15.886)
Are you okay? Watch your... Okay. Yeah, I'm gonna... I'll survive. Watch it, there's more steps than you think. Just keep going until you know you're on the bottom, because the last step is very hidden.
Speaker 2 (07:36.568)
Just keep making sure, making believe there's another step, because you'll find it.
All right, that is tricky.
Yeah. You know, one of them. Tricky. You think, I'm on the bottom. No, you're not.
Speaker 2 (08:23.662)
So the main reasons for this is to be a source of cheap goods for people and a place for people to give stuff they don't need. But the third and very more important reason is to bring people to downtown Bridgerton. And that's all these things make me feel really good about being here.
There's a lot of history in all of these items.
Plus, there are, plus I meet a lot of nice people, so.
I'm very happy. You have a good crowd coming in and out of here.
We do.
Speaker 3 (09:04.974)
There's a lot of nice neat things.
Speaker 2 (09:15.148)
A lot like my house, the stories that are in this building could fill an encyclopedia.
What are the hours?
Hmm, you're putting me on the spot. We try to be open from one to three every day. But I've given everybody who comes in that says, I've never seen you open, I give them my card. And since I only live a block away, they can call me up and I come down. So that's what we do.
service.
Speaker 3 (09:52.494)
And if anyone's looking for a 1947 Baconian.
We had, this was full of yearbooks. So one lady discovered the yearbooks and she says, I had a person who graduated that year. So we saw like 20 yearbooks in one week for everybody who graduated has their own yearbook. So as I said, Goldie died, but this is now owned by Judy, her daughter, who strives to keep the memory of Goldie alive.
She's a very busy woman and doesn't have the time to watch the store, but it's all her support that keeps it going. And we hope that it continues because it is such a great service.
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Speaker 3 (10:47.63)
Well, thank you again for giving me the tour, especially since I know you haven't been feeling so great lately.
Well, it gets better every day.
Speaker 3 (11:13.55)
And this is the senior center, affectionately known as Goldies.
18 East, West, 18 East Commerce.
18 or 23? 23, 28, right there.
Hey yeah,...
Thanks again, Sandy.
Speaker 2 (11:33.614)
You're welcome.
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Speaker 1 (11:38.08)
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