119: How one grandma recruited volunteers and struck gold for Salvation Army addiction rehabilitation with Cheryl Tuck-Smith

If you’ve ever donated gently-used items to The Salvation Army or shopped in one of our thrift stores, then you’ve directly supported addiction rehabilitation in your community.

Across the U.S., The Salvation Army has more than 130 residential treatment facilities which equip more than 150,000 people a year to combat addiction, build work and social skills and restore families. Each of these facilities sift and sort the public’s donations that are then sold in more than 1,200 thrift stores nationwide.

And those sales fund the cost-free, biblically based six-month program helping so many people find not only sobriety, but recovery.

Cheryl Tuck-Smith is the mom of one of those program graduates. She’s experienced the transformation that results, and for the past 20 years, has stayed involved in the effort in Chico, California.

Now in retirement after a career as an attorney, Cheryl has taken on a new role overseeing what she calls, Grandma’s Jewelry Box.

As an advisory council member for The Salvation Army Chico Adult Rehabilitation Program, Cheryl offered to help sift and sort donations of jewelry, looking for items to be sold in the area’s seven thrift stores.

When she discovered the warehouse had more jewelry than she could get to, she recruited help. The group of volunteers now meets weekly and have turned it into a ministry.

Cheryl is on the show today to share more about the effort, what they look for and the result—a remarkable average monthly income from the majority $4 to $10 pieces of jewelry for sale.

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