merchandise,” Koestler said. “When I started working there, I wanted to bring our store to more of a boutique style than it had been before.” Koestler’s touches can be seen throughout the Neighborhood Thrift Shop and she credits the three years she spent as a professional organizer as a big help in assisting her mission of making the store as shopper friendly as possible. “We’re a smaller thrift store in the area so we’re hoping to create our niche through what we do with our proceeds,” Koestler said. The Neighborhood Thrift Shop is operated by PACT Ministries (People And Christ Together). With a goal of providing low costing clothing and household items to people in the community, PACT purchases food including fresh produce to distribute to people in need.
“Monthly, we feed between 200 and 500 people through our Food for All program,” Koestler said. Koestler has lived in Mankato for 30 years. She plans to continue trying new art forms, keeping up with her photography and making the Neighborhood Thrift Shop a great place to find reasonably priced clothing and household goods. Most of all, Koestler plans to live by what she believes and what she believes is that life matters. “I have a quote on our refrigerator from Erma Bombeck that goes like this, ‘When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would have not a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me.’” Opportunities, time with people, gifts and abilities all qualify for making the most of what we’ve been given,’” Koestler said. M
North Mankatoan Ruth Koestler describes herself as a “rambling, random artist.”