With 535 views this past week on my blog, and a tidal wave of support on FACEBOOK, the message is clear. This community stands 100% with their Thrift Shop volunteers.

For those of us who have spent years – even decades – sorting, pricing, and chatting with you over the counter, this huge response is the “best thank you” we volunteers could ever receive.

Though the Thrift Shop has opened, functioning with a skeleton crew, the spirit of the shop is right here. Here in the comments, messages and shared memories you have sent our way.

This is not about politics or the Board. It is about RECOGNITION. The recognition of a community thanking us for the dedication that has kept the Delta Hospital open. From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for standing with us. We are are not just a “skeleton staff”. The DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP is a community of loyal volunteers. We are not going any where.

Dear friends, you will find me on line https:llbelocchio.wordpress.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

The volunteers primary concern is the comfort and support for patient care.  The  DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP  Board of Director’s has silenced the thrift shop’s most vital supporters .  The high price of this disrespect – the  Delta Hospital equipment fund stalls amid this conflict with the Board of Directors.

When the Board cites “culture reviews”, the real culture of the thrift shop  is the one that has donated nearly 20 million dollars to the Delta Hospital since l969.  The volunteers, some with over 30 years experience, are not the problem.  They are the solution that has been locked out of their own mission.

Dear readers,  please share this link with the Board of Directors to express your support for the DELTA HOSPITAL THRIFT SHOP  volunteers.  If the heading of this blog sounds rather like a newspaper that is exactly what is intended.  The Delta Optimist has printed a one sided account that fails to include volunteers views.  It is a disrespectful treatment “to fit a specific narrative”.   A truly biased report that misrepresents DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP volunteers in favour of The Board of Directors.  Shame on you Optimist.

Ironically, on Monday May 4th, 2026 the Board of Directors invited the volunteers to return so THEY could open the Thrift Shop they locked us out of. The same volunteers The Board Of Directors felt not capable of operating The Thrift Shop. The very volunteers that raised one million seven hundred thousand dollars in one year.

There has been no apologies from the irresponsible Board of Directors. For months The Board of Directors have ignored volunteer letters requesting answers as to why they had hired paid employees. These employees were the cause of the “unsafe environment”. The stress and unhappiness to the volunteers. We wanted them gone. The President of The Board of Directors, Maureen Mooney answered, “they are here to stay.”

We did not raise this extraordinary amount of money by our selves. Our loyal supportive friends, our customers, were our partners. They support us with donations we sell to raise this money. They support us by shopping in our three stores. Now they are supporting us in this fight to regain the control of our beloved Thrift Shop.

We volunteers are not the only people suffering because of the actions of our Board of Directors. The small businesses around The Thrift Shop have lost the traffic we bring to the area. Some of our customers live alone. The Thrift Shop has become more than just a store. It is where they meet friends and make new friends. Indulge in “retail therapy”. It is a safe store and a happy store. It is the centre of Ladner.

The Board of Directors would have us become another soulless Value Village. The Delta Hospital Foundation’s bottom line will suffer. The Delta Hospital’s facilities will suffer. The community will suffer with the reduction of health services.

The question has been why? Who benefits. Ask our volunteers. The Board of Directors has to go. All ten of the board – including the volunteers wearing two hats.

This group, this small determined group of women baked, sewed, held flea markets, held teas, bingo nights. Anything, anywhere, anytime to raise money to build their hospital. When Fraser Health tried to eliminate the hospital emergency The DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY fought them. It’s happening again, but this time it is the AUXILIARY who is in danger and they are being threatened by their Board of Directors.

Here’s the thing about the perfect love affair. People become very possessive about what they love. In the small village of Ladner the THRIFT SHOP is not simply a thrift shop. People feel THE THRIFT SHOP belongs to them and they are part of the THRIFT SHOP. They donate to it. They shop there. They meet friends there. It has become a destination point for those who live outside our area. It is the sum of this and so much more. People love THE THRIFT SHOP and are proud of it. It is a very strong love affair.

You do not change something so precious, so unique, so wonderful. You support it. You cherish it. All that we are is being threatened and for absolutely no reason. The Board of Directors are supposed to work for us. We do not work for them.

This Board of Directors has to go. All of them.

On the same day volunteers were locked out without notice our COORDINATOR was suspended in a letter from The Board. She was also banned from being a volunteer. She was given no specific reason.

Yet three days later, Wednesday March 29, in a statement to The Optimist newspaper Maureen Mooney, President of The Board said, “no volunteers have been removed from the organization”. I and many others have seen the the letter sent to our Coordinator saying she had be suspended and banned from being a volunteer.

The names of the Board of Directors are Maureen Mooney, President. Katy Ellseworth, Vice-president. Brian Stewart, Treasurer. Linda Laughlin, Secretary, Cheryle Beaumont, Corrie Lane, Kathy Slater, Wendy Child, Kelly Guichon, Don Phelps. Two of the members of The Board wear two hats. They are also volunteers at the Thrift Shop .

The Board of Directors closed the doors in spite of the fact that every day, every week, in every way we work efficiently and generate an astonishing amount of money. What is the real reason for changing the course of our Thrift Shop? Who has felt this was necessary?

I joined the Delta Hospital Auxiliary more than twenty years go. At that time our volunteer work was called “the ways and means committee”. It meant we raised money for the hospital in any way we could think of. Polishing shoes for donations. Standing outside the Liquor store selling raffle tickets. Holding fashion shows and teas.

We have come a long way. There were times when the Thrift Shop struggled to find landlords who would rent to us. Now we own the stores we so proudly work in. I am a senior and a retired business woman. If I thought our Thrift Shop was an unsafe environment I would NOT come to work. If I thought volunteers were not respected or were being discriminated against I would not be part of that organization.

The Board of Directors have much to account for. THEY HAVE TO GO. ALL TEN OF THEM.

Using Draconian measures the board of directors of the Thrift Shop have changed the locks on the door. No notice given in advance. This board has been disrespectful to the volunteers. They have introduced a paid employee into the operation. They are ones responsible for creating the working atmosphere of enormous stress in the Thrift Shop.

Our coordinator, a long time volunteer, was suspended for speaking out about the changes made in the operation of the Thrift Shop by this board of directors. She is also banned from being a volunteer. She was given no specific reason.

The DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP is completely operated by volunteers. There are no paid employees. Just hard working women and men giving of their time and paying their own travel expenses to operate the second most successful thrift shop in British Columbia. Including the year to date we will have raised by sales and donations almost twenty million dollars dollars for the Delta Hospital.

The work we volunteers do is demanding. We accept, sort and market what we sell in an efficient and professional manner. There are no perks. We do not get paid. We work so the DELTA HOSPITAL can continue to exist.

The DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP is no ordinary store. It is the heart and soul of this village of 23,026 people. The residents of Ladner have an appropriatory attitude towards The Thrift Shop. It is where they meet their friends, drop off items to be sold, and spend money shopping. It is their Thrift Shop and they have great affection for it. Non residents shop our Thrift Store then spend time and money in other businesses in the Village.

This year the DELTA HOSPITAL AUXILIARY THRIFT SHOP will celebrate 50 years of serving this community. Fraser Health couldn’t close us. We recovered from a fire and from Covid. Now this board of directors who are supposed to be working for us have done the unthinkable. Shut out the very people who have made THE DELTA Hospital’s continued existence possible. They are destroying the reputations of people. They are trying to destroy our heart and soul. THEY NEVER WILL.

Growing up during World War Two almost everything was rationed, or simply not available.    If you were very young during the war years you would never have tasted marshmallows or chewed bubble gum.   Gas was rationed.  We lived in the small town of Prince Albert, in the northern part of the province of  Saskatchewan.    A National Park and dozens of beautiful lakes were a short drive away.  Our Dad cycled several miles to work  saving  his gas ration coupons  for the occasional family outing.

The annual Pet Parade was a much anticipated event. Cats and dogs were coerced into sitting in small baby carriages, propped up in decorated, polished wagons or coaxed along with a leash.  Patriotic costumes were expected.    I felt quite smart dressed in a red, white and blue crepe dress.  Fortunately it didn’t rain.

This photograph of my sister and myself was taken shortly before our Uncle Bert left for war.  He was one of the many who did not return.

It was important for everyone, young and old,  to do ones bit for the war effort.  We collected string, tin foil (from cigarette packages) metal and even fat.    Once a week the women in our neighbourhood met and knitted socks or rolled bandages.   Tea and only  one kind of cookie or cake was served.    Food was rationed.   My Mother came home from one of these projects with this recipe for Banana Bread.   It was the talk of the afternoon because it didn’t contain nuts, but looked like it did.  Nuts of any kind were simply not available.    This is my Mother’s world War Two  Banana Bread.   The only change I have made is to add nuts.

MRS. BASSETT’S BANANA BREAD

1/2 cup butter ( or very good quality hard margarine)

2/3 cup scant or white or brown sugar

2 large eggs at room temperature

2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp each salt and baking soda

1 1/2 cups generous of VERY VERY ripe bananas.  They should be soft and squishy in the skins

1/2 to 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Have all ingredients at room temperature

Cream butter and sugar until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time.

Combine the dry ingredients and mix alternatively with the mashed bananas.   Start with one-third the flour, when this is mixed add half the bananas, now add another third of flour mix just until the flour is assimilated, add the rest of the bananas.  Mix briefly, then add the final one-third of the flour.  Add the chopped walnuts and mix briefly.

Pour into a well greased loaf pan and let stand twenty minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.   Test by sticking a cake tester or a very thin knife, into the centre of the loaf.  It should come out clean.

Banana loaf, like most loaf cakes or breads freezes well.

Virginia’s notes:  A few years after the photograph of myself and my older sister, I started making banana bread.  This meant being responsible to get the wood-burning stove’s oven up to the right baking temperature.  The wood-box would be filled with fine kindling wood.  This wood  quickly  created a hot oven  – just the right  temperature for baking.  The test for temperature required you to put your hand into the oven and feel its warmth.  With a little practise one could tell a medium (350F) oven from a quick (3375-400F) oven.

Container gardening.  The day is sunny, warm, a rare occasion this spring.    I run my hands over  herbs, lovingly caressing and releasing their fragrance; chocolate mint, spearmint, lemon sage, thyme, oregano.

I ready the pots.   Old containers washed and waiting to be filled.  But first I visit  Summer,  the horse next door.      I’ll use the hay to partially fill the over-size ceramic pots, and for drainage.

Summer helps.  She nudges my shoulder.  She blows little puffs of breath with her velvet lips.   She rolls her enormous chocolate-brown eyes.  She flutters her super long eyelashes.  She flirts outrageously distracting me from my hay gathering.  How could I NOT stop to rub her nose and tell her how beautiful she is.

This summer I am taking inspiration from Monet inspired garden colours. In the various gardens there will be lots of pink with dashes of red and a splash or two of white.     In the very French manner the pots of herbs will grow close by the door releasing their intoxicating perfume to all who brush by.  My fingers dig deep into the rich, black soil.  Tenderly the plants are transplanted,

The summer garden will have  dahlias  in a dozen  shades of pink, perfumed stocks, dazzling red and pink geraniums, delicate  impatience and an outrageous splash of Monet’s orange nasturtiums   The hydrangea and the camellia , the peonies and the star-gazer lilies –   a spectacular garden awaits.

This gardening, this caring and nourishing of all that grows is important.   Even if your garden is a small pot in your kitchen window it brings one joy and a state of calm.

Happy gardening my dear friends.  Virginia

German pastor Martin Niemoller 1892 – 1984

He was a German theologian and Lutheran pastor. He opposed the Nazi regime during the late l930s and was imprisoned in Sachsenhauser concentration camp and Dachau concentration camp from 1938 to 1945.

“First they came for the communistic, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”