Feb 26, 2004

Volunteer of the Week:  Ina Tanner

Almaden's Ina Tanner has found a way to spend her days of retirement doing anything other than retiring in an easy chair. 

Tanner is a volunteer at the Unicorn Thrift Shop in Almaden.  The Unicorn is a resale shop, in which all of the proceeds go toward a program called the Eastfield Ming Quong (EMQ) foundation, which aims to work with emotionally fragile children and their families and transform their lives by building social and emotional well-being, and to transform the system that currently serves them.  EMQ is currently the leading provider of children's mental health and social service agencies in Central California. 

Tanner spent many years as a teacher for emotionally disabled children, and said that once she learned about the benefit of the Unicorn Thrift Shop, which has no paid staff, she felt it was in her nature to become a part of it.

"I was told that EMQ tried to help children before they get to the juvenile system, which many of the students I taught would have benefited greatly from, and I felt it was necessary to get involved," says Tanner.

For about two years, Tanner has gone to the shop two to three days a week and arranges the shoe department, which she is in charge of, and works the cash register.  The proceeds of the shop go toward the "fun things that aren't in EMQ's budget.  Such as tickets to the theater and other stage productions, trips to Marine World, everything that isn't covered in their operating budget, but are at least as important in their development as the treatments and help the kids do get," says Tanner.

This isn't all Tanner does with her spare time.  She and her husband Marvin are part of a retired Methodists group that travels around, mostly locally but sometimes nationally, and does repair work on churches that can't afford to pay labor. 

"We've been doing it for about seven or eight years, maybe," says Tanner, "But we have so much fun, we kind of lose track of time."

The groups, about 22 couples, all with RVs, travel around and do minor repairs and rebuilding projects for churches, as well as making a trip to Mt. Shasta Methodist Church twice a year to open and close the campgrounds for summer campers.  Often, the group is truly "roughing it" with no electrical hookups in many of the remote areas they serve.

"The need is definitely there, and we have the skills and the time to do these things.  I guess we like to do something productive with our time rather than sitting around card tables or spending all day at the health spa," says Tanner.

Last summer, the RV group went to Louisiana and helped pack emergency kits while the hurricane season was roughing up the East Coast.

"We like to see things that we are doing making a difference," says Tanner, "It's a different perspective on Christianity rather than just going to church." 

She and her husband have traveled leisurely around the United States and Canada in their RV, and enjoy life on the road. "It's so nice to get somewhere and like it so much and not have to leave.  It isn't like we have to be anywhere," says Tanner, "We're retired!" In July, the couple is planning on a two-month tour with an RV group to the Maritime Provinces. 

Tanner and her husband are native Californians, but spent almost 20 years of their lives in upstate New York when her husband's job with IBM transferred them.  While there, they raised their three children, Michael, Loretta, and Julia.  They have six grandchildren.

"My husband and I have lived in Almaden for 28 years now," says Tanner, "And I don't intend to move out of this house.  We like Almaden very much." 

The Tanners may like Almaden, but they're not staying put for long.  As Willie Nelson would say they'll be "On the Road Again" before you know it. 

—By Miranda Schultz