Over $82,000 Awarded in Local Grants and Scholarships in 2026
The tale of the Council Thrifty Shoppe is an inspiring story about giving and getting back tenfold. The Thrifty Shoppe has been a regular staple of the community for over 20 years. It started with the intent to provide scholarships for local youth pursuing higher education in a medical field, with the hope they would return after the training to serve the community. A non-profit organization called the Adams County Healthcare Foundation was formed to serve this goal. Seven years ago, Council native, and former Mayor, Roy Grossen became President of the Foundation board, and with the support of Council resident and Thrifty Shoppe volunteer, Nera Watson, who soon after became Vice President of the board, things at the Thrifty Shoppe began to change.
Grossen and Watson both had a driving desire to help the community. They realized that product wasn’t moving, and that many of the struggling residents of Adams County couldn’t even afford the thrift store prices. “Clothes are the one resource that never ends, they come in every day,” said Watson, “So I’m like, why don’t we have everything a buck? It’s easy, nobody has to tag anything, people love it! One hand washes the other.” Clothes and shoes became a dollar, baby clothes a dime. Children’s toys and books became free, prices went down across the board.
Unexpectedly, revenue exploded. The first year they switched over to an attitude of giving and ridiculously low prices, the store’s revenue doubled! It has just been increasing ever since. “The clothes!” Said Nera Watson. “People were buying them clothes like they were going crazy!” The cash flow and volume had increased substantially and the store flourished.
Roy said the transition, however, was not easy, and some volunteers and board members struggled. “They said: ‘We can’t sell a pair of brand new $400 boots for a dollar!” and I said, ‘yes, you can!’” Roy Grossen reasoned that they didn’t pay for any of the goods, and so every dollar made was still profit. “We pay nothing for this stuff,” said Grossen.
As profits exploded the Thrifty Shoppe had a new problem. They started making too much money, and there weren’t enough graduating seniors pursuing medicine to give it to. So Nera asked, since there weren’t a ton of kids graduating in Adams County, “Why can’t we give money to every kid that’s wanting higher education?” They had t0 change the bylaws, but they did it, and started granting even more scholarships.
There was also suddenly extra money to make capital improvements, which the building desperately needed. They put in new flooring and air conditioning, paid off the building, improved the storage, and put in new shelves and organizers. Next, they are planning on working on the store front, adding automatic doors and switching to double pane windows, improving and expanding the donation bay and sorting area, and continuing to clean and organize things.
Every year the scholarship and grant funds are increasing. This year they gave away more in grants and scholarships than ever before, totaling $82,750 back into the community, up from $74,900 last year. 22 students pursuing higher education received scholarships, up from 15 last year. They also gave out grants to local organizations, especially those centered around the original mission of health care. That means that organizations like Council Valley Ambulance, Meadows Valley Fire, Indian Valley Fire, Adams County Sheriff, and the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, as well as the Council Senior Center, the Community Garden, the Council Valley Free Library, and the Elementary School Library all received grants from the Thrifty Shoppe. Roughly half of the funds they give are grants to local organizations and the other half are scholarships. Students have to apply for the scholarships but Watson said they can give a scholarship to every Adams County graduate who applies, although the amount varies somewhat based on the need, the application, and especially GPA. The scholarships are renewable for up to three years and are open to homeschool and private school students as well, although none have applied yet.
The store is entirely dependent on the support from the community and volunteers. As the Thrifty Shoppe has become more popular, donations have increased tenfold. This steady stream of donations has allowed them to stay so profitable despite the low prices. Grossen said they go through an average of 400 lbs of clothes a day now. Much of it they don’t deem fit to put out and goes to Boise to be recycled. He said they send down over 1000 lbs of clothes a week to be recycled.
“I’ve always liked to help people,” said Roy Grossen, “I wanted to make an improvement to the town.” In addition to helping the community through grants, scholarships, and low cost goods, they also utilize the goods in the store as a social safety net for community members in need, and help as a pregnancy resource, for burnouts, or for anyone else in real need. “I’ve just always had a soft heart for people who are, you know maybe down on their luck or having a rough go in their life at that moment,” said Nera Watson, “I know I’ve been there. I’ve been really really rich and I’ve been really really poor. Really poor!” They prefer to work through referrals for this, though, to prevent people from taking advantage. Most referrals come in from Rose Advocates or the churches.
Grossen also doesn’t like resellers. He wants their low prices to benefit people in the community in need and doesn’t want people coming simply to profit off of the Thrifty Shoppe’s generosity. He knows most of the resellers and isn’t shy about kicking them out of the store. They also have had problems in the past with theft, and now have motion security cameras in the front of the store and the back donation area that record everything.
One thing they always need more of are volunteers. There is no time commitment to volunteer, people can work as much or as little as they want, although most volunteers like to work five hours a week so they can enjoy half off everything in the store. Both Nera and Roy are also thinking about their replacements. “I can’t keep doing this, this hard forever, and I don’t want to,” said Roy Grossen, as he is getting older. Watson, too, is thinking about retiring after giving 12 years to the Thrifty Shoppe. Both are hoping that whoever replaces them will want to continue the legacy of service they helped to build. “If it wasn’t for helping people I wouldn’t be here,” said Grossen, “we’re worried about what happens when we’re gone”
The Council Thrifty Shoppe proves just how when you give it away you end up getting more. “We’re helping people in hard times,” said Roy Grossen. He said every day families come in who need it, and many have been reduced to tears of gratitude. “You can rest your head at night,” said Nera Watson, “I did good for somebody today.” The two fold mission of providing low cost goods to the community and providing grants and scholarships turned out to be a recipe for a successful, flourishing, business. “We help people, above all,” said Roy Grossen, “I don’t even care if the profit went down, if we help more people, it’s fine.”
