Moore Retires With Family Time the Focus

Alice Moore helps a customer at Mahaska County Outreach.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Mahaska County Outreach has been serving the Mahaska County area for approximately three decades, and Alice Moore has been a part of that for nearly half of that.

Alice Moore has managed the store for the past four and a half years, and volunteered for 12 years before that.

The nonprofit thrift store, located at 114 N 1st Street in Oskaloosa, uses bag sales to provide money to other area nonprofits like the summer lunch program. The sales take place once a month, and run for two days each time. “Everything we make in them two days goes to a nonprofit organization,” explained Moore.

The store just held a sale to benefit the Oskaloosa Summer Lunch Program, and approximately $1,400 was raised to help area kids get meals during the summer months.

The Mahaska County Outreach store is also there during times of need, when families lose everything due to fire, flood, or other disasters.

“I’m going to miss everybody,” says a teary-eyed Moore. “I’ve learned to love everybody here. I just love being here and helping people. So it’s going to be hard to leave.

“When somebody comes up and gives you a hug and says thank you for helping them out, you feel it from your heart,” says Moore.

Moore is not always able to remember her customers’ names, but does remember their faces. “They’re just used to me,” she says. “If I don’t tease them a little bit when they come in, they think I’m mad at them.

“I just like to be friendly with everybody, so it’s better to smile than to frown.”

Moore says spending time with her mother and grandkids is top priority, and she thanks her husband Keith and the volunteers for all their help and support.