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Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Susan Postigo’s “New Beginnings” thrift store has opened where Linda Lampe’s “Worth Saving” shop once stood, on the corner of Fifth and Sally Streets in Hollister. And like Lampe, Postigo will use her location to help the underprivileged through the Robert Postigo Family Charitable Trust for Special Needs Children.
“It is an example of the power of the press,” Lampe said. “Susan was looking for a location and she saw the BenitoLink article about my store closing. She called me just a few days before my last day, when I was just going to give everything away.”
Lampe said she welcomed Postigo’s offer to take over the location, because it meant the thrift store would still be helping the community, though in a different way than Lampe, who used the store as a source of funding for her Food Angels project.
“I think it is perfect,” Lampe said. “She is such an amazing person. It is weird that our dreams are aligned, just for different causes. I think she will succeed and I told her I would stay around and help her until she’s got her team together.”
Postigo has lived in Hollister since 1962 and came to her calling while taking care of her son, Adrian, 40, who was born with special needs. Her daughter, Allison, also has two boys with special needs.
“I have always wanted to do something in the community for our special needs population,” she said. “They have so much to offer the community that they haven’t had the opportunity to give.”
Named for her late husband, her charitable trust began as one of his projects when he started a garden at Ladd Lane Elementary School that special needs students could tend. The Postigos also helped out Growing Hearts Garden and Cooper’s Calling in their early days.
“When Robert passed away a few years ago,” Postigo said, “He left a fund with the Community Foundation for things related to special needs. It was for the kinds of things that Robert and I talked about doing together.”
Postigo recently donated to Ladd Lane a communication board, an iPad-like tool that allows nonverbal children to point to pictures of common objects as a means of expressing themselves. She has also sponsored a calming room at Hope Services.
“Educators do not get much money from the state,” she said. “So we are meeting with them to find ways of getting more supplies and teaching tools for special needs students.”
Besides raising money for her projects, Postigo sees the thrift store as a staging place for activities for those with special needs, such as making the centerpieces for a recent Food Angels awards ceremony. She is also considering turning the yard behind the shop into another garden where special needs people can grow whatever they want.
Postigo will receive assistance from Susan Hilden, a mother whose son Tyler, 30, participated in the special needs program at Hollister High and is currently with Hope Services.
“From the years of being in the community with a disabled child,” Hilden said, “I have gotten to be one of Susan’s sounding boards and we are always in touch. When she asked me what I thought of the opportunity, I asked her how I could help.”
Hilden said that the store will give higher-functioning special needs children and adults a chance to feel more connected to the community in ways that will fulfill their lives.
“They really want to be part of something,” she said. “My son, for example, is nonverbal but loves to run the vacuum cleaner. He is good at it and will be able to help here when needed. It will give these people a chance to feel part of something and they will put their hearts into it.”
Lampe said that she considered it as passing the baton to Postigo and the transition was meant to be.
“I’m just really thankful that something wonderful like that shop is going to live on,” she said. “I’m just praying and trusting that the people of Hollister will continue to support her the way they supported me.”
New Beginnings Thrift Shop
101 Fifth St., Hollister
(831) 902-9078
Tentative hours: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Donations of money or goods are welcome, Postigo said.
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