SEQUIM — In a sunny house on Bell Street last week, Brenda Holton fingered an unblemished, soft fur coat hanging on a rack.

The jacket could cost more than $100 new, but its price tag read $30 in the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild Thrift Shop.

“There’s a lot of wealthy people around here,” Holton said.

When the wealthy people’s castaways become other people’s treasures, that translates into thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment and scholarships that the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild gives back to the community.

Since the guild formed in 1970, it has gifted more than $1.5 million to Olympic Medical Center and Clallam County Fire District No. 3. It’s contributed $250,000 in scholarships to North Olympic Peninsula residents pursuing an education in the medical field.

Part of that success comes from the thrift shop’s volunteer-driven operation and its extensive clientele, which ranges from low-income people to antique dealers to people just looking for a good deal.

“It’s the busiest store in town,” Holton said.

The guild opened the shop in 1977 as another means to raise money for to support the community.

It was located in a tiny house on South Sequim Avenue near Washington Street, and later moved to its current location, a one-story house at 204 W. Bell St.

One morning last week, an hour after opening, the shop’s rooms were crowded with volunteers in blue vests and customers scouring the racks.

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The rest of the story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE, above, to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.