September 2, 2020
Spotlight: JoEllen Schultz
If you’ve ever shopped our New Hope store, you’ve hopefully had the pleasure of meeting JoEllen Schultz. JoE (for short) has a warm smile, a kind heart, and a calming presence. We recently caught up with her to learn a bit more:
Q: What is your background
A: I have been with Arc’s Value Village team for almost 6 years. I started as the Assistant Store Manager at the former St. Paul store, moved to support our Richfield store, and then on to our former Brooklyn Center store. When that store closed two years ago I moved to our New Hope location as the Store Manager. Prior to coming to Arc’s Value Village I worked in distribution leadership and training development for over 17 years.
Q: What do you love about Arc’s Value Village
A: I love that our stores bring such amazing people together – our staff, volunteers, guests, & donors! Every day I get to interact with such incredibly passionate people. I love that we keep items out of the landfills by helping to give a second or third life to clothing and household items. And I am extremely proud that our stores directly support The Arc MN because it is a human rights organization.
Q: What’s one of your favorite finds at our store?
A: Oh, there are so many incredible treasures! My education background is in Art Education, so I get excited to see all the different genres of art that are donated. A few months ago a pair of old vintage-looking landscape paintings caught my eye every time I passed by them on the sales floor. They reminded me of being up north at the lake. Now they make me so happy every time I see them on my wall at home.
Q: Who inspires you?
A: My team! Every day I get to work with such an amazing, hard-working diverse group of people. I learn from my team each and every day – from how to run this business more successfully to how to a better leader and person. Training and development is something that I’m very passionate about. Regardless of job titles, I see each person as a leader in their own right. So to be able to support and guide individuals in their own growth is so rewarding. It’s inspiring to see someone’s self-confidence grow, allowing them to take on more responsibilities than they thought they could!
Q: How do you enjoy your downtime?
A: We have three teenagers at home – my son, daughter and our niece – so they keep us pretty busy! I love celebrating family events with our extended families. We’ve been sticking closer to home over the past few months and this has allowed my husband and I to tackle home improvement projects, which we enjoy working on together.
Q: What did you want to be when you grew up?
A: I wanted to be a Veterinarian. Growing up we always had a menagerie of beloved family pets and I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time on my Grandparent’s farm. I got to hang out and appreciate the individual personalities of their horses, cows, pigs, chickens and more. That’s the reason I choose to become a vegetarian at the age of 10 – which I still am. Today my constant companions at home are our rescue dogs Zander and Josie, and cat Griffin.
Q: What are words to live by?
A: To quote the Dalia Lama, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible”.