Thrifting regulars who came to White Rock's Superfluity Thrift Shop looking for bargains were welcomed with coffee, hot dogs, doughnuts, popcorn and cake on March 22.
Peace Arch Hospital Auxiliary Society members who volunteer at the shop, at 15163 Prospect Ave., were celebrating the 75th anniversary of the store, which operated out of an old house on Vidal Street when it first opened its doors in the spring of 1950.
Funds raised by the shop played an important part in fundraising for the building of Peace Arch Hospital, opened in 1954, and it has continued to help in raising money for new equipment and service improvements ever since.
Mayor Megan Knight and former mayor, MLA and MP Gordon Hogg were on hand at the celebration to cut an anniversary cake, while members of the Star of the Sea Knights of Columbus cooked up hot dogs, and Cindy Walker of Homelife Benchmark Realty, who became an Auxiliary member last year, provided mini-doughnuts, popcorn, coffee and bottled water.
During the celebration, shoppers inside the store were also invited to spin a wheel to determine the discount amount on their purchases.
Knight, who presented the shop with a certificate of appreciation from the city, applauded volunteers for the "time, energy and passion" they have invested in it over the years through multiple locations in the city.
"The Superfluity shop has brought in $16 million to the community, and averages around $250,000 a year," she told volunteers and members of the public.
"To everybody who has played a role (in this success), here's to another 75 years," she added.
Hogg, who is an honorary life member of the auxiliary, said that he has been told that he was attending meetings with his mother when he was still a babe-in-arms.
He recalled that, when Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster announced in 1946 that it would no longer accept patients from Surrey, it led to the establishment of a Surrey Hospital Society.
But an ad-hoc group of residents in the south end (including White Rock) soon became frustrated with the slow progress of that, he said, and set about fundraising for what would become Peace Arch Hospital, and were subsequently donated five acres of land for the purpose.
On Aug. 25, 1954, White Rock District Hospital, as it was then known, opened its doors for the first time.
"The Women's Auxiliary helped tie that all together," he said, acknowledging the women who had played a key role in carrying forward "the spirit of '46, '47 and '48" through all the years since.
The first Superfluity Thrift Shop was established in an old house on Vidal Street owned by city doctors Al Hogg (Gordon's father) and Tom Blades and another partner, who provided it rent-free to the auxiliary.
In 1956 the operation had grown to the point where a move to a store on Marine Drive was necessary. But within three years, the old house on Vidal was torn down and volunteer labour built a new thrift shop on the site.
That was the home of the Superfluity for 20 years, until, in 1979, the auxiliary executive purchased the current Prospect Avenue location, former site of a tire store.
“We could not have done what we have done without the Superfluity Shop,” then auxiliary president Lynne Quigley told Peace Arch News in 2023.
She noted the importance of the shop is that it has enabled the cash flow that allows the auxiliary to make large donations for the hospital, and pay them off within one to three years.
