by Barbara Dixson
Pictured above: Sunshine Buchholz with owl puppet
If you’ve ever shopped in the gift shop at Schmeeckle Reserve, you know that it’s simply a happy place to be. As you walk in, you’re greeted by a UWSP student behind the desk. Very quietly in the background, you hear nature sounds. Out the windows, you have glimpses of trees, bare this time of year, and snow.
On your right, you can stop to say hello to Hilde the bullfrog …
… Peach the painted turtle or one of the other critters in the big tanks.
Nature sounds play softly in the background. As you wander further into the shop, you find displays of clothing, books, toys, everything nature themed, and chosen where possible for environmental friendliness. As a Friend of Schmeeckle Reserve, you even get a discount. And the money you spend here goes to support what all of us Friends value: the wood chips and boardwalks, supplies for programs and events, and so much more.
The quiet genie at the center of this magic place is Sunshine Buchholz. For the last eight years, Sunshine has been volunteering in the role of gift shop manager. “I’m here in the background consistently,” Sunshine explains. In the pre-Sunshine years, the shop was run by students, who are inevitably transient, and so the shop, though pleasant, lacked vitality. It’s brimming with life now! Sales have increased each year since the pandemic, and the shop provides significant income for the Reserve.
In Sunshine’s regular job, she’s a project manager for a software development company, but the skills and knowledge she needs to run the gift shop date to her childhood. “I worked in my parents’ business since I was old enough to make change,” she said.
At age 12, she began a business of her own, making beadwork items through the winter and selling them at fairs in the summer, continuing to rely on income from her business all the way through college.
I asked Sunshine how she began her volunteer work at the gift shop, and she explained that her husband, Jim Buchholz, Director of Schmeeckle Reserve, found a gap in student coverage at one point and asked Sunshine to help out. From that point, during the hours when their son was in pre-school, Sunshine came and brought the shop to life.
Now she spends an average of one day a week there, ordering, organizing, keeping the books up to date, coaching students on how to work in customer service, and taking care of anything else that arises. She understands both Schmeeckle Reserve and Jim’s challenges and joys in a new way. Sunshine smiles, telling me, “It’s fun for me!–and I appreciate the opportunity to support Schmeeckle.”