Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 9:23.mp3 Air date: 2026-09-23 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. You can throw my handouts here, KNCO Newstime, it's just about 907, 65 degrees, a beautiful sunshiny day out here in western Nevada County. Again, we're in transition time, it's the first full day of fall, gonna feel though kind of summer-like. We'll get into about mid-80s today, upper 80s tomorrow. So if you've got errands to do, a couple of reminders, because my dog Ranger is here in the studio with me. Keep the dogs at home, even this time of year, even though we start fall, it really gets very warm in cars very quickly. So you think you might have parked in shade, sun moves pretty quickly as well, so the shadows change and you don't want your pet to be in distress, that's number one. Number two, if you're running errands, it's always good to check with some of your neighbors that might have some physical limitations and maybe don't have the ability to get out as easily as you might to do an errand, like go to the store. Errand could be just getting the garbage cans at the end of the driveway, you know, putting them down there, bringing them back later on, getting the mail, things like that. And that way you can do a little welfare check and make sure they're okay as well. That's what, I tell you what, in Nevada County we are very good neighbors, we really do look out for each other and that's one of the strengths about living here. An organization committed to that, Foothills Compassionate Care, the name kind of says it all. They have a lot of compassion, they put into everything and we're talking about kind of the heroes that are involved with Foothills Compassionate Care when we're talking about volunteers and volunteerism. It is a love affair that the community has had with Hospice of the Foothills, that's under the umbrella of Foothills Compassionate Care. I have Mike Yarrow here from the thrift store, he's the manager, you're the big boss there Mike at the thrift store, right? Oh, the volunteers are the boss, I just kind of corral them. Yeah, that is a group you have to corral at that thrift store, that is an active place, one especially down here, just down the street. Very passionate people. All right, you got that one here, you got the one down in Penn Valley as well still, right? That's true. All right, very good. Of course the volunteers are coordinated by Meredith Melger who's here, she's the volunteer coordinator which you might think, well that's like a handful of people she has to direct. How many volunteers are you coordinating? We have about 220 in our organization. 220 and you're smiling. Yes. Now how do you coordinate 220 people? Do you have just like a big dry erase board? That's what I kind of picture. Oh my goodness, well we're trying to move to a software that does it a little bit more efficiently for us, but there's a lot of paperwork and then there's a lot of really good managers that manage the umbrellas of our volunteer program. All right, so you volunteer though, like the main person in charge of all the volunteers, right? Yeah, we have making sure that everything's uniform across our Friends of Hospice program and then we have different arms within that volunteer program that are managed individually like Mike takes care of all of our volunteers for the gift and thrift locations with Jason and then we have special events volunteers, we have patient care volunteers that I do manage directly, so lots of different opportunities in there. Off air for our listeners out there, there was a Phil Kondik sighting by me at the thrift store, well I don't know, I go in every once in a while, a couple weeks, you know my wife's been hospitalized but she was super regular there for lots of years and so I always stop in just so when I'm going to get a visitor and talk to what I've seen in the thrift store and all that stuff and then I heard, hey Bubba, and Phil Kondik was there. That's right. He's one of our all-stars. Yeah, so what was it like when Phil came in to volunteer? Did you talk to him first or Mike, did you talk to him, how did that work? You know, I'm not sure, did you get his application first? He was looking for some cooking ware, some pots and pans and I stopped to just say hi, see if he needed any help and we just kept talking and then he mentioned, do you need help? And I said always, we could always use more help. That sounds like Phil. Yeah. He left with an application and came back next to do some work for us. Alright, so he gets the application, fills it out and he brings it back to the store, is that what happened next? Yeah, or just directly get in touch with Meredith and that'll get the process going. Alright, so what was it like meeting Phil and getting his energy involved? Phil was the greatest. I mean, that was definitely a long interview. He definitely had a lot to say and lots of life experience, so I heard all about the rodeo clown days, his days here and you know, quite a few other adventures that he's been on. We got to talking about cattle and things like that, so it was a good time and he's been a really steady volunteer. He is working at the Gift and Thrift location. He actually does bingo at Sierra, the Senior Center right down here. Sierra Gold. Yep, Sierra Gold and he's going to be taking our patient care volunteer training the first week of October, so he'll be part of our vet-to-vet, our veterans program. Yes, very good. Okay. So he'll be meeting with our patients that are veterans to provide companionship and support and he's really just, you know, branching out and doing all the things. I told him, I'll give you a full calendar if you let me, so watch out. No, no, he commits himself and he has great energy that he brings to the building, which I'm sure he does to the thrift store. Does he stay on task though? That's what I wonder sometimes. You know what I'm saying, Meredith? He's good at multitasking, but you know, we gave him a tough job. We said, can you please keep these hardware rooms in shape and you know, he's in there a couple of times a week and most of the time he's on task and keeping the store presentable. Well, you know, when you mention that right now, the hardware store does, I mean the room there does look pretty darn good. Yeah, so I have to admit that that looks pretty good. I can see him getting that thing organized. And that's not an everyday sighting. We try our best, but he's got it under control. Very nice. All right. So again, being a volunteer is one of the things we're going to talk about today. There's a whole bunch of different ways, Meredith, that people can volunteer because they can bring a lot to the table. Yes. Maybe we could start with maybe not as open as the thrift store. Maybe just say it's a former office worker, somebody that maybe could be good making calls and stuff. Yeah, I mean, there's ways to do all kinds of stuff. We do need administrative support. We have our main office that can use data entry and we have like fundraisers that we do and so we stuff over 4,000 envelopes. So even people that don't necessarily have the physical mobility but are able to sit down and stuff envelopes, it's a good group of women that do that. We do have some men in there too. I know we have, I'm sure Phil would be happy to come to one of those as well. But we have lots of opportunities that way at our main office and yes, that would be our administrative support side of things. All right. So I saw something about, I don't know if I saw that, I saw stuffing envelopes. I also saw something about stuffing bears like toys. What is that about? So each of our hospice patients on admission, we try to give them a stuffed animal bear once they enter our hospice service. That's awfully sweet. Yeah, it's pretty sweet. Anyone that's had a family member in hospice probably has seen these bears. They have a little sash that comes from the caring friends of hospice. But they're hand-sewn by our volunteers. Each bear takes over four hours to create. And so there is a dedicated team of people that have been doing that since the start of the Friends of Hospice program. It's kind of a legacy program. And yes, we can always use help with that as well. Yeah, I was wondering too, Mike, if there was somebody, and I think, you know, not necessarily just men, it could be women too, but you know, like these handymen, the stuff that can repair things. Is there a need for that at the thrift store for things that maybe got donated that are 90% great but might need a little tweaking before they're presented? Oh, absolutely. And it does not even just the product we handle, but the store, it evolves. You know, we're moving rooms around, putting shelves up and down. Oh, that's a good point. Yeah, that's a very good point. And anybody who's got, you know, a good hand in that, we can put to use. There's really something for everybody in our Friends of Hospice program, professional, otherwise. But you have a skill that you want to bring, we can put it to use. That's absolutely true. All right, I went on the website just before the show started, because I saw something about a volunteer training that's going on, and that's coming up pretty quick, right? Yes, that's going to be October 5th through the 9th. The first day is our new employee orientation, with our new employee and volunteer orientation, and that invites everybody to get to know the organization inside and out. And so, come to the Monday, we provide lunch. You just want to let us know you're on your way so we can make sure we have enough food. Okay. And then, if you want to stay for the patient care volunteer training, that would be lovely as well. All right. What type of time commitment is the training, you know, for people that might be thinking about this? Right. So, it's from, Monday is 8 until 2.30, with lunch provided, 8.30 to 2.30, I apologize. And then, the rest of the week is 8.30 to 12.30. Okay, so mornings and, yeah, okay. Yeah, and it's a pretty in-depth training. It meets all of our Medicare requirements, but also has a level of connectedness. Yeah. So, you leave kind of feeling connected to the organization. Do people ever feel funny, guys, volunteering when it's, you know, I don't know, it's called Foothills Compassionate Care, and that's the umbrella for everything from, you know, palliative care and hospice work and things like that, but that it's just dealing with hospice patients and such. A lot of people, do they ever get, thinking it's going to be a downer atmosphere? Because everybody seems pretty upbeat there. Yeah, I think it's a different sort of volunteer that does that. There's just, you know, what you're called to, and so, if you don't want to work directly with patients, there are absolutely ways to help our organization, and one of those is definitely our thrift stores. On Friday, Thursday and Friday, we'll have a pricing party, where just everybody comes and eats pizza, and it helps us to price things and get things back going, and so, we'd love to have more bodies for that. Wow, pricing party. Yeah. It's going to be a good time. All right. Now, do you have to have a lot of pricing expertise, or are things kind of, Mike, laid out pretty easily for people to figure out? Training is provided, but we also have some, you know, some worksheets that can kind of give you guidelines on different departments. The big thing is just getting interaction and just getting hands-on all the product that we've got and getting things moving. Yeah, and are products moving, because you guys move a lot of inventory, I know, at these thrift stores. Amazing what you guys have done. Oh, yeah. It's a busy time of year, and definitely, this is when, you know, gifting and things like that comes to mind, so there's been a lot of shopping happening, but this year has been a notably good one for donations. People have been very giving, and our storage has been consistently nice and full, so we should be nice and set through this winter. That means a good amount of money being raised for all the work that Fidel's Compassionate Care does, right? Yeah, good revenue coming in. You know, we really are thankful to our loyal shoppers and, you know, passersby who just come in and know that Grass Valley's got some good thrift shops, and they come in and put their money into hospice, and, you know, that helps the community. You know, and that is a good point. Do the thrift stores all kind of work with each other and stuff? Is that a good way to put it? Because there is quite a block of them. You guys have got the mothership there. Yeah, thrift store alley, we call it. Yeah, it is thrift store alley, exactly. And definitely, you know, there is goodwill between us all, and, you know, we basically are, if we don't have it, we want the customer to find what they are looking for, so we will recommend, you know, the other local shops that we know of and hope that they have that inventory there. And, you know, between all the major thrift stores, we all kind of have our own little dynamic, you know, that we focus on as far as inventory, so it kind of narrows it down to how to help people out. Yeah, well, I have to admit, the great work that hospice does, it really fills people's souls. You know, after a loved one might have ended life here, you know, for their end-of-life care was with hospice, they have a tendency to donate to hospice, I am sure. I imagine a lot of the volunteers come from the same type of people, right? A lot of our volunteers have either been caregivers or impacted by hospice in some way or know that one day they may need hospice, and they are already part of that community, because I think it really is a community, right? You were talking earlier about how special Nevada County is because of the goodwill and because of people looking out for people, and I think hospice really just wraps their arms around a lot of people and has touched everyone in some way at some point. Yeah, I have worked here 31 years at the radio station now, and in the beginning, before anybody in my family had a hospice, I did not quite get why people loved hospice. We would have jail and bail, things like that, and tons of people donating for hospice. It was amazing, just the love and support there. But then my mom went on hospice especially, and then I totally got it. Right. Totally understand. That totally changed her dynamic and really made her end-of-life great, you know, so I get it, you know, so that is what is so wonderful about doing the show once a month, to talk about hospice, and today we are talking about the thrift store. It is one of Roxanne's all-time favorite places to be when she was shopping. So we are going to take our first break, so quick break, we will be right back. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded. Hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart, with special guests the second and fourth Mondays at 9 a.m. Brought to you by Amal Paint and Glass, serving Nevada County since 1949, and Smarter Broadband, local, reliable, high-speed internet. Don't miss the voices, the stories, and the history that make our community unique, right here on KNCO News Talk 830. What if the care team you trust today could be there for every step tomorrow? At Partners in Care, that is exactly what you get. We provide compassionate in-home care to help with daily needs like meals, transportation, lighthouse thieving, and personal care, along with the companionship that means so much. And if your needs change, you don't have to start over. If hospice care becomes necessary, you already know your caregiving team and we can add the support of skilled medical professionals such as nurses, social workers, and spiritual care at no additional cost. When engaged, our hospice professionals provide 24-7 support, focused on comfort, dignity, and quality of life, while caring for patients and families physically, emotionally, and spiritually. All services are personalized and designed around your family's specific needs. Visit PICSeniorCare.com or PICHospice.com for more information. Partners in Care, bringing comfort, continuity, and peace of mind when you need it most. Hi, this is Eli Bacon with Sierra Harvest with delicious news about your local food system. Food Fight 2026 is this Friday, September 25th at the stunning Castello Vista Estate, hosted by Sierra Harvest. Food Fight is one-of-a-kind fine dining experience celebrating the incredible food grown right here in our region. Top local chefs will go head-to-head creating inspired dishes made with 100% locally sourced ingredients. And you can get the best job of all, tasting them. Enjoy unlimited bites, discover just how delicious local can be, and then cast your vote to help crown this year's People's Choice winner. It's great food, talented chefs, a beautiful setting, and a delicious way to support Sierra Harvest and our local food community. Come hungry to Food Fight 2026 this Friday night, September 25th. Get your tickets today at Sierraharvest.org. We hope to see you there. Nikki Glaser. We don't talk about ugly people because no one's ugly. The Stunning Tour. Come on. Like, there's some people, they're ugly. I'm not saying they're a bad person. It's not their fault. I mean, it's their parents' fault for being cousins or something, but it's not their fault. Nikki Glaser. Friday, September 25th. The venue at Thunder Valley. Tickets on sale now at ThunderValleyResort.com. Don't miss Nikki Glaser, The Stunning Tour. All right, KNC Newstime, 923.67 degrees. Welcome back to KNC Insight, highlighting Foothills Compassionate Care. Mike and Meredith are here talking about volunteer opportunities, the gift and thrift store. As Mike mentioned, we are heading towards the holiday season, so it gets busier and busier. It's busy all the time there. Meredith, you were mentioning pricing parties that go on over there. We're having one Thursday and Friday, and if you want to come, you're welcome to. Just give me a call and let me know you want to come. The best way to get involved with any of that would be to apply online. We have foothills-cares.org slash volunteer. I'm plugging that in right there because we would love for you to sign up. There's a big apply now button, and that's the best way to get started. All right, that's a pricing party. Sounds like a fun thing, and you can learn a lot about the inventory and stuff too, and the people that work there. No experience needed. What's the biggest needs, Mike, that you have in the store as far as volunteerism? I did see something about cashiers needed like on the weekend. Is that right? Yeah, actually, cashiering can be really fun at our location. You're interacting with a lot of people, and we could really use a steady Saturday afternoon cashier. It's one of our busier days, and with good reason. It is hard for somebody to commit there every Saturday to come and cashier with us, but from my experience, cashiering is uplifting. You get to joke. If you're a social person, this is a good place and good way to come out and get to meet a lot of people in town. Does the machine make the cash, the transaction happen, and how much change you need back? Oh, yeah. Our sales system is super easy. I was just thinking of Phil doing that. Our sales system is very easy, but our inventory is what you got to learn because it's not as clean as a big box store, but we got people around right there with you to give you the training, make sure that you're comfortable in hosting at the storefront. Yeah, and you have to be a people person to work in Gift and Thrift because everybody goes in there. I see the wealthiest people, and then I see people are probably on the fringes, too, in their shopping. We've got something for everybody. Being a social person definitely helps, but if that's not for you, if you like to work a little bit on your own, there's a whole backspace with workstations that you can have your own little station, help us work with product, help us sort things, and you'll still interact with people, but it's going to be more of a one-on-one basis, not feeling like you're in a crowd. Well, and I would say if you're not the most social person, definitely still ways to help out in terms of pricing things, right, because there's always an ever-going need for pricing. Seven days a week, we could use somebody in the back pricing items, becoming an expert on that. We definitely need more help pricing things, too, to get things on the floor for the social people to sell. By the way, kudos to the people in back because anytime I've dropped off to say donations of my own and stuff, they're there to help unload them, and they're always polite. They're always respectful. It's actually very nice, people back there. Yep, and even if you can't unload things, you could still price things. We can have you sitting down, pricing things, and we're calling all people to come out of their homes and come price things. All right. Now, I did see something here, and I had no idea if this is an annual thing, Mike, about a coat drive that goes on at the Gift and Thrift Store? Yeah, this'll be, I think, the third year that we've been trying to push for this, but when it's the rainy season and it's cold and it's snowing, we do have a tendency to give away a lot of jackets, blankets, warm things to keep people comfortable through the season, and that does put a dent in our inventory. So the more we can get our hands on, that's going to keep the shelves full for shoppers, and then if somebody's really having a hard time, they don't got to worry about where that money's going. We can take care of them. We work with a bunch of different nonprofits in the community providing vouchers for families to come in with these vouchers, shop for their essentials at no cost to them. This coat drive is a big part of getting through winter, keeping the community all well-dressed. And that's a very respectful way to do it, too, because having a voucher there, it just is almost like a gift certificate. They don't have to feel any type of odd feeling going and getting stuff. They just have to check out, hand in their little certificate, and they're good to go. That's very sweet. It gives them a perfectly normal shopping experience, something for the kids, the mom, whatever, themselves, whatever they need. All right. So is that started now? Like, is this about the time of year it starts, beginning of fall, because of the cooler temperatures coming? We start that in September, trying to really promote it, get it out there. But all season long, any donated jacket or blanket, anything that'll keep somebody warm and comfortable, that's doing good by dropping it off to us throughout the winter. All right. I imagine then along that same line, see, I had no idea there was this type of donation. There's toys that could also have, like, a toy drive as we get closer to the Christmas holiday and the like, too? Yeah, that'll be starting up pretty soon here. And something that is also new to us, this will be our third year doing it, is the Visit with Santa at the Grass Valley location. Visit with Santa? We get a real live Santa, Santa's Village. So families can come in at the last weekend, right before Christmas Day, so they can come in if it's that last minute thing, they didn't have a chance to go to the mall or somewhere like that, take photos, and we have all sorts of, you know, toys for the kids, free, brand new jackets that are giveaways, as well as, you know, a raffle for some higher end toys to maybe, you know, and that's kind of undecided what we have right now, but could, last year we had, you know, some big Lego sets and brand new bicycles. And it's just kind of a fun event that we're trying to throw and just to get more, you know, of that family involvement in the community. Yeah, I see there's going to be photos with Santa, ugly sweater contest, which when I think about it, you guys probably have ammunition there, you probably collect all types of different things, including possibility of ugly sweaters for Christmas? Oh yes, and they're very sought after these days, but we do try to separate and kind of get those together. We know that they're their own kind of department, the ugly sweater, when we get closer. Now, do you have time? Have you ever worn an ugly sweater? I have, you know, we have one hanging up in the office for special occasions year round. It was handmade for us, and it's kind of like the legacy gift and thrift ugly sweater. Wait, who's wearing that to the potluck then? There's a volunteer potluck that we'll be having in December, which will be an ugly sweater. Oh, exactly right. So you'll have to wear that. Meredith, you have an ugly sweater. I don't yet. I got to get myself an ugly sweater. I have plenty of sweaters, debatably ugly. Yeah, well, they really do stand out when you get an ugly one. Oh yeah. You know it. The more garland, the better. All right. Oh, okay. This sounds nice, Santa's Village. Again, that happens. I have here Saturday, December 19th, right before the big day, the week before. So that is something I'm very excited to look forward to. But in between that, something again, duck hunt. Okay. So duck hunt, the term duck hunt. And I never know, Mikey, you probably have something in mind. Do you have guys walking around with Elmer Fudd outfits on looking for ducks? What's the duck hunt all about? We tend to get creative at the Gift and Thrift. And last year, right before Black Friday, we were donated a very large quantity of rubber duckies. And we figured, what if we did a little scavenger hunt as far as the sales promotion for the day? So the store will be littered with these little rubber duckies with a little number written on their bottom that correlates to a prize that you can get. So you come in for the sale. If you find a duck, you're in luck and you can get a bonus prize. All right. First, the reaction when you got donated a bunch of rubber duckies. What was the conversation like about that, Mike? That's kind of unusual, isn't it? It was an unusual circumstance. But there's a thing with Jeep drivers where they will duck each other, put a little duck somewhere on the hood. We assumed that somebody had retired from their Jeep. Yeah. We had the duck race just this past weekend. I thought maybe it was Rotarians up in Nevada City. They use those every year. So I guess they wouldn't have donated them. I think they still hold on to them. I would think something like that you'd want to keep. This was a lot of nice ducks that they just handed over. All right. So it's a duck hunt. I have it down here November 27th. It is Black Friday that you guys are doing that, huh? Yep. It just worked out that way. All right. So that is something to look forward to as well. So hospice, gift, and thrift. It does seem like a great family of people that greet you, that always answer questions. They'll even look for things that maybe might be in the back that aren't on the store floor yet. And a whole bunch of great furniture. So you can use people that can move furniture and stuff too, because you guys are always moving that stuff in and out. Oh yeah. For years, we've dreamed of having somebody wanting to hop on our truck, go out and pick furniture up, do deliveries. It's a big part of the business, and it's not for everybody. We do get some big, heavy, beautiful furniture, and it definitely takes a team to get that safely into somebody's home. Yeah. All right. But the place to be is hospice, gift, and thrift. I'm late for my news break. Meredith, you're supposed to keep us on time. Oh, sorry. No, it's all right. You think about ugly sweaters. Anyway, we're going to take a break in a news update weather forecast. Going to come back and talk about, again, patient support. You know, how you can be involved directly with patient support and volunteering that way. So we'll take a quick break. We'll be right back. Good morning. I'm Paul Haas with a KNCO local news update. Governor Newsom's recent state of emergency declaration ahead of what could be a super El Nino winter won't be daunting for the Nevada Irrigation District's water facilities operations. That's according to Assistant General Manager Greg Jones. He says they've had a lot more practice in dealing with heavy atmospheric river systems that have become almost the norm for any rainy seasons. We have a pretty good, robust process and a robust series of staff that are out there on the field and making sure that that water's flowing and not backing up where it doesn't need to be and getting it out of the system when we can. At this point in time, we feel pretty well ready for the winter and we'll see what happens. But El Nino storms tend to be warmer and Jones says a smaller snowpack would be less beneficial for a longer term water supply. The Sierra snowpack is sort of our largest reservoir in the state of California. But when it comes in as rain, you know, the district only has so much storage it can hold. And if it exceeds that amount of storage, that rain is then just flowing over our spillways and down into the delta and into the ocean, which is in our practical purposes, sort of a water lost. But it does keep the reservoirs really high. And the annual law day at Nevada County Superior Court has become part of Western County fifth graders education. And tomorrow, groups of these students will be rotating through the courthouse with an opportunity to learn firsthand about the roles of the various justice partners. It's in partnership with the superintendent of schools. Court Executive Officer Leila Waheed says students will be participating in sessions that include a mock trial courthouse tour and chances to meet and learn from local justice and law enforcement professionals. And it will also recognize the 250th anniversary of the United States with a focus on the Constitution. The Constitution can feel pretty far away from us in our day to day life, but the Constitution forms the basis for the court's responsibilities as the third co-equal branch of government and understanding the responsibilities of judges, court staff, attorneys and law enforcement as public servants all comes from the Constitution. So we hope that students will be able to see how this work is done on a daily basis and maybe even imagine themselves in public service roles to support our community. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour for news traffic and weather. Anytime visit knco.com. I'm Paul Haas, KNCO News. 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And some patchy areas of smoke on Thursday. Sunny and dry with a high 85. Thursday night, partly cloudy, are low 59. Then sunny and not as warm on Friday with a high in the mid 70s. For weather anytime, click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. All right, KNCO News time. 938, 68 degrees. Welcome back to KNCO Insight. Highlighting Foothills Compassionate Care with Mike Yarrow, manager of the Foothills Gift and Thrift Store. That outstanding store. I think yearly voted the best thrift store in the area. Do you guys win that union award again? Yes, we did. All right, congrats to that. Do you get a big bonus for that? I know. No, I understand. All right, that's fine. I figured I'd try it out there for the boss in case Heidi's listening. Food for thought. All right, and Meredith Melger is here. She is the volunteer coordinator. In charge of all these volunteers and volunteer opportunities we've been talking about. And maybe the most important is patient support. At least that's the one a lot of people are synonymous with hospice. Because yes, there's nurses. There's skilled professionals there. But I imagine volunteers are a key to make all this stuff happen. They're pretty crucial, yes. So we do have our patient support volunteers that show up in a variety of ways. But really the commitment that takes and the, you know, just commitment overall. Emotional commitment, physical commitment. Like showing up every week for your patient. So it's up to four hours a week that our patient care volunteers put in. And there's a variety of ways they do that. They have respite support, which is really for the caregiver. Allowing them the time to step away. Except then they can maybe get their hair done or just stretch their legs. I had one man that called and just wanted to go get his dog food. Can someone come so I can go get people and pet food was the words he used. And so yes, absolutely. Please step away and do what you need. And take your time to do that, right? Like you don't need to feel in a rush. You can slow down for a moment. It's another woman that just wanted to take a walk on her own knowing that her mom was going to be okay. That's what I was just thinking. Just to have that mental thing about being outside. Oh, absolutely. So that's respite support. And then we have friendly visitors. That's usually up to an hour a week with a patient. But that's the highlight of that patient's week, right? It's because a lot of the times they're in a facility. Maybe they have visitors. But a lot of the times they don't. And so kind of breaking up the week. Breaking up the day from breakfast, lunch, TV, dinner, things like that. Having a friend that cares and wants to be there. And until the end, right? That's your friend. We do have animal support volunteers. We have our service dogs. I'm hoping to get two more with this training coming up. I'm really excited about that. That would be very sweet. Yes, okay. Yep. We have our mini horse team as well. Which is, you know, once monthly they make visits to facilities and things like that. Mini horse? Like a real mini horse? Two mini horses. Spirit and Flint. And occasionally Ember will be there. They'll appreciate the shout out, I'm sure. They have great names for horses, by the way. They do. They have their trailer with compassionate care on the back. So if you see that running around, that's our mini horse team. But they go into facilities to just brighten the day. Break up the monotony a lot. And they're phenomenal. Yes. All right. So here's the thing. Again, we talked about this earlier. If you're just joining us. Meredith was talking about the training that's going to be going on here. Fifth through the ninth of October? The fifth through the ninth. Yep. All right. So this is a good time to do that. Honestly, yes. We only hold this patient care support training in October and April. It's twice a year that we hold this training. And that allows you to serve the patients, direct patient support. Yeah. So it's kind of sought after and something that people wait for. And yeah, no time like the present to sign up. And if not, we have April as well as an opportunity. So I imagine there's some people maybe have in their mind. I think I want to do this. But then they discover. That happens. Other opportunities too. Oh, that happens for sure. Yeah. And there's kind of the patient support volunteer training is kind of more. It's definitely more in depth. It requires more of the training up front. But once you're in that door, like I said earlier, you're part of this big community. And so we have patient care volunteers that volunteer at our fundraisers that volunteer at our gift and thrift locations, show up to our special events pricing. And we have, you know, the caregivers that come back and do that. So. Yeah. And Phil, again, Phil Condick, we were talking about earlier for our listeners out there know Phil, he's going to be volunteer patient support veteran to veteran type of support. And that is a program that we've actively been trying to recruit more veterans to meet with other veterans, because that's a very special bond. Yeah. That's a different conversation. Exactly. Camaraderie they have is really unique. And they have a certain way to talk to each other and. And underserved, a very underserved community. So, yes, we're trying to beef up our veteran program. And if you're a veteran and you want to give back to other veterans that are going through their once in a lifetime moment, this is a way to do that. Yeah. And for you men out there, especially, you know, step up and do it like Phil's doing. That is exceptional. That almost really kind of gets to my heart, just knowing Phil's doing that stuff for you guys to get out there and volunteer. Again, the time commitment, about four hours a week. Up front, up front is a big commitment, right? For the training. Yeah, right. We've got to carve out some time for this training. But beyond that, it's really what you want to make it. If you have an hour a week to spare, that's great. We do ask that once you're matched with a patient, you try to follow that patient through. Hospice means, right, a six-month terminal diagnosis. Sometimes it exceeds that. There is a volunteer, for instance, that started out with this patient who ended up, it's been two years he's still placed with this patient. So that does happen. Yeah. But it's an hour a week. If you're unable to make it, we make other arrangements. If you're going on vacation, we find a substitute, things like that. If they become your friend. Is there the camaraderie between volunteers, too? Because I was just thinking about the person that's a new volunteer. Again, it's going to be emotional because people will pass away, but you're making their quality of life as good as it can be. Yeah. To talk about things like tough days. I'm trying to come up with more of an outlet for that, to have monthly meetings that people come to. We do have continued education where these volunteers come together once monthly for continued education if they want to come to that and become more involved. We have our dying, vigil, and bereavement teams, which are separate programs after patient care if you're looking to be involved in those. And they have monthly meetings where they come together and just kind of digest the things that they're dealing with and seeing. And does it ever happen that you've kind of picked a volunteer to go out to volunteer with a patient and they don't mesh? Yes. Does that happen? Absolutely. Because I could see that. I was just thinking if they said, oh, this guy's into hockey, then he comes out. I'm a New York Ranger fan. He might be an Islander. Oh, goodness. Well, the training does cover that, right? Like political views, religious views. We're very tolerant, right? There's a certain level of tolerance. You do have to have to do that job. But yes, there are times where it doesn't work out or it's not a good match or maybe the patient isn't as open to seeing people as they thought they were initially. But there's, you know, I did want to say, too, there's other opportunities in terms of professional services. Like we have cosmetologists that cut hair for our patients and they don't necessarily have that time commitment. It's just, hey, could you give a haircut to this patient? We're looking for someone that can do nails, right? So go to the home and do something like that. We, you know, I just happened to have a patient care volunteer who is also a plumber and was able to go to a patient's home and help fix a leaky faucet, which was amazing. Yes. Yes. So other things like that, just odd tasks, odd professional services that it's like I could give back in this way. And it's not a weekly or monthly commitment. It's just as needed. Yep, as needed. Reiki. We have Reiki volunteers. We have a wonderful massage therapist volunteer. Okay. Now, Reiki, that's not like getting out the rake and raking. No. Yeah. I had to learn about it, too. We did a workshop about it because it's really hard to explain. It's like a spirituality type of thing. Yeah. It's just more of an energy work type thing. Mike, are you all over this, the Reiki thing? I'm not well versed in the Reiki. I wasn't well versed either. But I mean, there's no side effects. It's not going to hurt you. Yeah, there you go. I love that opportunity. I never even heard of anybody talking about that before, Merith, so thank you. It's almost like these handyman things. Again, with people, end-of-life stuff, that can really bug them and stuff that that thing hasn't been fixed yet. Yes, there was one woman who her husband went on hospice, and she's like, he would fix this Reiki Foxit. Yeah, he would get under the sink and do that stuff. She goes, I have all the tools. I have all the stuff you need. I just don't know how to do it anymore. So doing stuff like that, we definitely use people with those types of skills. We had a volunteer photographer that'll do portraits of the patients and their families as they're going through this transition, which was beautiful too. All right. Do you want to share, because I know you have a handout in front of you. Oh, right. Just what this means as far as hours put in and really what that means in actual savings for Yes, absolutely. You know, the services provided. So on an annual basis, I mean, we have over a thousand volunteer hours that were put into direct patient support volunteer hours. We have other hours, including our gift and thrift location, totaled upwards of 27,000 hours that were put in. So our total patient volunteer hours for 25 and 26 were 28,941. So almost 30,000 hours that were put in collectively by our volunteer team. That's over 220 volunteers that are active in our organization, put in a total of almost 30,000 hours this last year. And the value of that, I mean, aside from our patients and our caregivers and our community, but financially, the total value of those volunteer hours is $1,161,692. That's awesome. Over a million dollars. Over $1.1 million. Yep. And that's the standard volunteer conversion rate for that. That's awesome. And the thing is like with the ones at the thrift store, Mike, they're obviously life blood of your store, but it sounds like they consistently show up. You know, you could have volunteers and all of a sudden they don't show up. It seems like they do a good job showing up there. Absolutely. I mean, you know, they take vacations. They, you know, you might need to take a break once in a while, but we've got a handful who can put up a hundred to, you know, over a hundred hours in a month working at our store. And that is just above and beyond really impactful for what we can accomplish in a day when those people show up and give us their hard work, making a big difference for the store and the community that benefits from it. All right. We have to take our last break. We come back. We're going to go through all the upcoming events. We've hit on a couple of them, but again, we haven't hit on all of them because there's stuff going on. It seems like we get to autumn, everything from Moonlight Magic to weekend sales at the thrift store. Is it the first weekend, last weekend of the month? We'll go through all that fun stuff when we come back. Rev up your weekend at the California Crossroads Car Show. Saturday, September 26th, the Crossroads Church parking lot comes alive with an incredible collection of cars and trucks from classic American hot rods and vintage muscle cars to European classics, newer rides and everything in between. Whether you're a serious collector, a weekend gearhead or just love checking out beautiful cars, there's something for everyone. Bring the entire family. General admission is free. Enjoy the cars, family-friendly activities, live music, kids zone, art show, great raffles, vendors, food and more. All while supporting a great local cause, the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Cancer Center. Special thank you to our title sponsors, Grass Valley Provisions and Holtz Collision. Got a vehicle you'd love to show off? Cars and trucks of all years, foreign or domestic, are welcome and registration is available online. It's the California Crossroads Car Show. Saturday, September 26th from 9 to 2 at Crossroads Church. 10,042 Wolf Road in Grass Valley. Get all the details or register your ride at cccarshow.com. Hi, this is Ryan Valdez with Rock Rose Risk. Like many Californians, I've watched homeowners face rising insurance costs, policy cancellations and growing uncertainty, especially in wildfire prone areas. That's why we created Rock Rose Risk. We work with homeowners, ranchers, farms, HOAs, multifamily and businesses to better understand and reduce wildfire risk and help insurance companies recognize the mitigation work being done. The result? Many of our clients save an average of 21 to 35% on insurance premiums while making their property safer and more resilient. We believe people who invest in protecting their property should have better options. If you're frustrated with wildfire insurance, let's have a conversation. Visit rockroserisk.com to learn more. That's rockroserisk.com. Hey, Nevada County, I'm Lucas Mijares. And I'm Jesse Etlin. We're the founders of Zion Capital right here in your backyard. And if you've listened to Dave Ramsey, you know how important it is to have someone you can trust. That's why we're your local SmartVestor pros. Lucas was named one of eight finalists for Advisor of the Year by Investment News and has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. And Jesse's been voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County four years in a row. We're backed by firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab, so you don't have to drive down the hill. You can have Schwab and Fidelity right here in your backyard. That means you get a true hometown relationship with Fortune 500 muscle behind your plan. We work with everyone from entrepreneurs building wealth to retirees focused on maximizing income. And we go beyond the basics, showing you smarter ways to grow your money that most people never knew existed. At the end of the day, we meet you where you're at and help you get where you want to go. Come visit us here in Grass Valley, or give us a call today at 530-955-5402. Zion Capital, a mission bigger than money. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor, and separate entity from LPL Financial. KNC Newstime, just about 953, 69 degrees. On the homestretch here of KNC Insight, our monthly visit with Foothills Compassionate Care. Highlighting really lifeblood, how it all happens. Yeah, it does happen with donations and you getting involved, support this great non-profit. But it's a lot of volunteer hours, almost $1.2 million that is put out there to make these things happen. Whether it's keeping the thrift store going, whether it's keeping patron support going, and volunteer workshops that are going on, and all this stuff. Mike, a lot of people wonder, every month you guys have a sale, and sometimes they get mixed up if it's the first weekend or the last weekend of the month. So the big sale, the 50% off storewide, that's the first Saturday of each month. We end our month with a $10 bag sale. $10 bag sale. And that is, it's an overflow sale. Out in front of the store, we'll load up tables with abundant goods that we might have gotten through the month. And you can fill a paper grocery bag for the cost of $10. So that's kind of how we end the month with the overstock. And we start the month hoping you come out and just help us clear shelves for refill. If people want to start their own lacrosse or hockey team, you can go to that table sale. And there's people that, they go after it out there. I went there one time, and I couldn't even get close. I said, no, I think I'll come back. We've got a good following, and they've got strong elbows. And it was ladies. The ladies were tough. Yeah, that's exactly right. One thing that's going on are some little events that sound totally fun. Like one that's happening over at, of all things, Grass Valley Brewing Company. That's right. Yeah, we'll be having our Death Deck and Drafts event. The Death Deck is, you know, it really gives you a kind of a, I want to say fun, but also just a more conversational way. Yeah, kind of a thought-provoking type of thing. Yeah. Yes. To discuss death and to come together with other people that want to talk about it. Have a beer. Have a beer. Exactly. And that kind of loosens people up to kind of think about things. I mean, yeah. Come have a beer and talk about things that aren't often talked about. All right. So that's going to be at Grass Valley Brewing Company. It's on a Sunday. That's right. It's this Sunday, actually. Yeah, this Sunday coming up. You're right. Yep. On the 27th. And you can find that event on our webpage. You can also call our main office to register for it. All right. Then there's an estate planning workshop. It looks like the following Tuesday, just a couple of days after that. That's right. On the 29th from 4 to 5 p.m. at our main office. You know, you don't have to be thinking about hospice. You don't have to be anywhere close to death to be needing to plan your estate. Absolutely. Yep. Because things change out of the blue. That's what I did in my life with my wife and stuff. Yeah. Do it before it crosses your mind again. It doesn't really have to be much more of a thought than, I'm free from 4 to 5 on the 29th. I should probably be there and plan my estate. Yeah. This is a presentation with Alexandria Goff, I see here, who's a legal. And she can help with the estate planning. And so very important things can be answered and get the process started. Yeah. Don't think about it too much. Just come. And that's at the Compassionate Care offices. That's our main office. Yep. September 29th, 4 to 5. All right. And then we have, well, we mentioned the volunteer training. We'll get to that before we get done here. But I saw something here about care without burnout. Yes. That's our caregiver toolkit. We're hoping that anyone that is, you know, caregiving or dealing with a loved one that requires more care, or you see that in your future, come and learn some skills or some tools. We'll be having a panel of people that have been in that position, that are currently in that position, that can answer questions. Just be around a community of people that understand what you're going through. Yeah. And, you know, sometimes I think people might have an expectation that, oh, I can handle this after all, you know, like I've cared for my spouse and, you know, other times when they've been sick. But this is like something different. Right. Even if you think you know exactly what you're doing, just come hang out with other people that are also doing it and maybe get some new thoughts or make a friend or get outside for an hour of your caregiving. That's important. And that's going to be a Wednesday afternoon, October 28th, between 1230 and 130 again at the Fiddle's Compassionate Care's office. I hope everybody's got their pencils out writing these things down. Well, and this is the thing I was going to highlight is that going to the website, they have great information there. Yep, we have that all. Who's in charge of the website? Do you know? I think Melissa is our website extraordinaire. No, it is very clean looking. It's always accurate and up to date. She is a wizard. All right. Moonlight Magic's like a fancy event. This is like the fancy fundraiser. This is our gala. This is our time to shine. It is magical. It is moonlit. And we are gathering light for this event. So it'll be Friday, November 6th at 530. And that is a fantastic thing that is put on by quite a few volunteers. Quite a few members of the community will be there that are, you know, dinner, auction, and impact. Yeah, and music. And it's at the Foundry, Monnier's Foundry in Nevada City, which is a great place to have it as well. It has a great atmosphere there. And I think it's almost sold out if I'm not mistaken. So I think people should get their tickets, get involved. And if you don't want to go and fundraise and be there in that capacity, we're looking for volunteers. If you like special events and doing the stuff. That's another good point. Yeah. If you want to just volunteer for special events, you'll get to go to them. You'll just be working them. But it's a lot of times just handing out hors d'oeuvres, drinks, whatever. Yep. Helping with our live auction. Things like that. Mike will be there. Mike's going to be helping with our auction too. Mike, do you get dressed up for this? Like fancy and stuff? As best as I can. It's my one fancy event of the year. All right. And again, if you don't want to dress up that way, Mike says get an ugly sweater, get ready for Santa's Village. That's right before Christmas on Saturday, December 19th at the thrift store. At the thrift store at Grass Valley. Yeah. It's going to have photos with Santa. It's going to be an ugly sweater contest. There's even story time for the kids. Story time, face painting, free toys. And as I mentioned off air, yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus that's done by Phil Conduct every year. He could probably do that for you guys out there with story time and stuff. He'd probably love to do that. Oh, he'd probably be a great Santa. Yeah, he could be Santa. Yeah. He thinks he is Santa. He gets a couple of little schnapps in him. He's good to go. Again, the website address, Meredith? foothills-cares, both plural, dot org backslash volunteer. Or just give me a call. You could give me a call directly. 530-274-5108. Let's talk. Let's find a way that you can give back to your community. And Mike Yarrow, you can always find here at Hospice gift and thrift store down the street. He seems like he lives there at this point. Thank you. Great job, guys. Great job today. All the best to everybody at Foothills Compassionate Care. That does it for us. ABC News coming up right now. --- end of transcript ---