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Local charity fights cancer through consignment
By Justin Wier
BOARDMAN
For 55 years, Penny Pincher has offered Mahoning Valley residents the opportunity to contribute to local charities while saving money.
The nonprofit consignment shop donates its proceeds to local charities. Since 2011, the charity has been the Silver Lining Cancer Fund, which provides cash payments to valley residents undergoing chemotherapy.
All proceeds from donations go to the fund and 60 percent from consignment; the rest goes to the consignees.
Lisa Cutlip came on as general manager in 2011. She’s the one who found the Silver Lining Cancer Fund, to which she had a personal connection.
“I was so excited when I found this charity for us because [founder Dr. Lawrence Pass] was my oncologist who saved my life when I was 9 years old,” Cutlip said. “Funny how things come full circle.”
She’s a two-time cancer survivor – she fought a second bout in 2012 – and she said that’s what keeps her at Penny Pincher.
“That’s very important to me,” Cutlip said. “I remember when I was little how my mother and father struggled to pay the bills.”
While Penny Pincher has been around since 1962, the original store was at 1335 Elm St. There have been several moves throughout the decades, and in 2011 it landed at 6826 Market St. in the Colony Square plaza in Boardman.
If you walk to the back of the store on a Tuesday, you’ll find Penny Pincher’s four board members gathered around a table affixing price tags to items that have been donated or consigned.
Cutlip said there are about eight people that volunteer regularly, but Carol Krause, Ginny Dineen, Paula Barrett and Presh Rowney are the stalwarts.
Krause has been there the longest. She started volunteering at the shop with the Junior League of Youngstown in 1962.
“We were all junior leaguers,” Krause said. “We grew up having to do volunteer work, and we’re still doing it.”
The organization was founded by society ladies. Anita McKelvey once served on the board. The current board recalls members of the Beeghly and Tod families serving as well.
“It started as a way to provide the community with good clothing and household goods at a reasonable price,” Krause said. “They wanted to do something meaningful.”
Krause has a book with the names of 6,661 people who have consigned items at Penny Pincher throughout the years. Clothing fills several racks in the room they work out of.
Dineen said she used to donate items to Penny Pincher and eventually was asked to volunteer. She is currently the board’s president. Barrett had her own reasons.
“I started volunteering when my husband was sick to get out of the house,” she said. “And I’ve just kept on.”
The women now look forward to coming in each Tuesday, as much for fellowship as to get work done.
“You get to do something that’s fun, and you’re helping the community,” Krause said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”