August 22, 2025

Giving Tree Volunteer is Also the Store’s Biggest Fan

URBANDALE, IOWA  --  Glenda Lynch isn’t just a Giving Tree volunteer; she may be the Urbandale thrift store’s biggest fan.  She started volunteering at Giving Tree six years ago, but her history with the shop goes back much further.

“I started (volunteering) when I was still working full-time as a credit towards a charity … through work that I would earn points on,” Glenda says, but “I'd been shopping here forever.   I just thought it would be a good thing to get my points for the year, and then it would get my foot in the door for something that I wanted to continue doing later, which is what I have done."

“I've been shopping here since it was practically new” and much smaller, she says, “they just keep knocking through walls, and getting bigger and bigger.”  And with each expansion, the store isn’t just getting bigger, she adds, it gets better.

“It's the best thrift store ever. I wish we didn't have to call it a thrift store. I wish we could call it a boutique,” she says, and compared to other thrift stores “none of them are displayed as nicely nor have the atmosphere that this one does. If you took the words ‘thrift store’ off the front and just put boutique, people wouldn't think twice about anything.”

She says she hears the same from friends, family and customers.  “I have family and friends that come from Omaha and Sioux City and just spend the weekend and thrift shop … and this is one of our first stops this this place.”

“They test everything, they replace batteries - if need be - they steam all the garments that come out … we tell people that if it plugs in, that it's tested,” she says, “When some of that is explained to (customers) … they’re pretty impressed.”

“I love the people that are here.  I love the customers and the reaction that the customers have,” she continues, “There's the regulars, but I always like hearing ‘this is the first time I've been here, and this is just so nice!’”