Red Feather Lakes 'mall' business is booming

By Linda Bell
Red Feather Lakes Correspondent

Where to find a pair of jeans, a flashlight, a telephone for an added bedroom or some fun toys for visiting kids--in Red Feather Lakes? Visit the "Red Feather Mall," the name locals fondly use for the Chapel in the Pines Thrift Shop located on the east end of Ramona Lake.

The nearly 45-year-old thrift shop, open from Memorial Day to Labor Day on Monday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m., functions as a summer hub of commerce and community in the village.

According to Neva Gulliksen, joint chairman of the shop with JoAnn Ehrlich, two events created the thrift shop. The Chapel in the Pines built a church on the Red Feather Lakes Road around 1960, vacating the small building where the shop is now located. At that same time, church member Bertha Nelson had been organizing very successful rummage sales in her garage to help raise seed money for the new church building.

Since the church still held the deed on the older building, Nelson's rummage soon moved out of her garage and into the newly created thrift shop. "It's been a popular place to hunt treasure ever since," Gulliksen said.

Carolyn Burton, one of the shop's 30 volunteers, said everyone shops there --from serious collectors to campers looking for emergency raincoats and warm blankets to teens exploring retro clothing styles.

The shop is well stocked with clothes, knickknacks, books, hardware, baby supplies, videos, cassettes, telephone equipment and some electronic items.

"We used to take sofas and large appliances," Burton said, "but soon we had no room for anything else."

Last year the thrift shop made $7,200--the largest amount to date, Gulliksen said, but usually it clears about $5,000 per year. All the money from the thrift shop goes to the Chapel in the Pines benevolent fund and is used for local outreach programs, she said.

The building housing the shop started out originally as a small cabin along Ramona Lake. In 1937, Maud Mahon, a Denver schoolteacher bought it and adapted it to religious services, calling it a "Soul-Saving Station," Gulliksen said. It thrived, but Mahon died in 1943 and from then on it was used for other activities, even as a school at one point, she said. The building was eventually sold to Jack Dalton, and in turn, he either gave it or sold it to the Chapel in the Pines congregation--no one can remember for sure, she explained.

To reduce the summer inventory, Gulliksen said, the shop has sales toward the end of August and into September when it is open only on Saturdays. "A lot of what is left we donate to various charities in Fort Collins," she said. "We never cut off our intake, though, and during the winter there are usually plenty of donations to fill the shop up again by the next summer."

To find the mall from Red Feather Lakes Road, take Prairie Divide Road (CR 179) north, then turn east on Main Street through the village. Ramona Drive intersects Main heading southeast and continues south around Ramona Lake. The thrift shop is located on the east side of Ramona Drive just beyond Trout Lodge.

To donate items to the thrift shop either take the items to the shop during summer store hours or call the Chapel in the Pines, 881-3508, to arrange for pickup.