By Brenna Wiegand
A little miracle happens when you make a friend. For Dawn, Debbie, Darcie and Jennifer, who boast a collective 70 years as Silverton Rite Aid employees, it happened shift-by-shift. Everyone else is welcome.
Dawn Hagedorn Arbuckle worked at Rite Aid when it was still Thrifty. She was a Thrifty employee when it became PayLess Drug Store.
“We just don’t go through a lot of associates,” said store manager Mike Petersen, who has been with the company 10 years. “It’s a solid crew of people who can adapt to change and that’s really nice. They’re a great group – I can’t say enough about them.”
Except, maybe, that they know how to make work fun.
On a December day, they “harassed” assistant manager Kevin Hodges over the intercom for kicks. The next day, they played with the Christmas toys. Lights flashed and tunes blarred.
“Hey, we’ve already sold three of these by doing this!” Dawn said as she re-activated her musical Christmas bear.
December marked Dawn’s 19th year at the store. Darcie Sorter was there when it opened. In cosmetics at first, Rite Aid trained and hired Darcie as a pharmacy technician 16 years ago. Time flies.
Debbie Branson has been another face of the store to the community for 16 years.
“It’s the longest I’ve been anywhere,” she said, throwing out her 13 years at long-gone Sprouse-Reitz as evidence. Pharmacist Jennifer Ellis also has 16 years to her credit.
“We’re family,” is a common refrain, nobody contesting Dawn’s matriarchal role. Yeah, they tease and joke, but they remain tuned in. In other words, Debbie said, “We’ve learned when to cut ’em some slack.”
“I’d hate to come to a job where you didn’t like the people,” she added. “Why would you want to feel that tension?”
For nearly two decades, they have shared each other’s joys: graduations, weddings, grandchildren… And have been first responders when tragedy struck – as it has. Darcie’s 12-year-old son passed away on Christmas Day eight years ago. Three years ago, Debbie lost her husband, as did Dawn just three months ago.
“They’re just great,” Dawn said with a glistening eye. “They covered me; made sure I had time off and they check up on me. If somebody needs a shoulder, we’ll take her out to dinner after work.
“They’re fantastic, but it’s the town, too,” she continued, citing random acts of kindness by regulars. “The whole town is fantastic.”
Dawn returned to work after three days, a testimony to the group’s tightness. “I think this store would fall apart if not for Dawn,” Darcie smiled. “She orchestrates all the potlucks and parties we have.”
No occasion goes uncelebrated by the staff… they’ll set up a barbecue out back or congregate at Mac’s Place.
Fun-loving group for sure, but at its core is a formidable force, seeing to it that lines don’t get too long; that employees are findable – and that new employees are thoroughly indoctrinated.
“When I first got here I was too shy to talk on the intercom or even to have people see me – I wanted to be a janitor,” said Jessica Jones, the five-year new kid on the block. “Now she’s worse than we are,” said Collie Brosig, who like Selah Kinn, has been on the scene a half a dozen years herself.
