Christ the King parishioner named Cedar City's Citizen of the Year by Chamber of Commerce

Friday, Jan. 27, 2017

CEDAR CITY — When she helped transform an annual weeklong parish garage sale into Ye Olde Catholic Thrift Shoppe in 1997, Pat Sproul’s biggest fear was that they wouldn’t have enough donations to maintain operations. 

Her fear was unfounded. They received so many items that six months after opening, the shop moved from the house where they started into some suites at a commercial center in downtown Cedar City. Now, 20 years later, the thrift shop fills the 10,000-square foot center. Its success has allowed Christ the King Parish to pay off their new church’s mortgage and beginning saving for a parish hall.  

Over the years, the thrift store, which until this year was run entirely by volunteers, helped train people from Easter Seals and Workforce Services. It also donates to the Cancer Center and Iron County Care and Share, and sponsors local basketball teams.

Throughout all of this, Sproul served as the store’s manager: scheduling workers, ordering supplies, waiting on customers, cleaning restrooms, driving the furniture truck and repairing equipment; she also “acts as a cheerleader for the 80+ people who volunteer each month,” according to the nomination that led her to be named the 2017 Citizen of the Year by the Cedar City Area Chamber of Commerce.

The award was presented at the 66th annual Best of Cedar City Awards Banquet on Jan. 19; the Sharwan Smith Center Ballroom at Southern Utah University was filled with about 500 people honoring the 12 award recipients. 

“Tonight is a big deal, because this is the whole city; it’s not a Catholic thing,” said Monsignor Robert Bussen, pastor of Christ the King Parish. “It’s a nice moment for the work of the Catholic Church to be visible.”

Sproul is deserving of the award, Msgr. Bussen said, because she has “done an outstanding job of managing not just the thrift store but the many, many, volunteers. … She manages all of them with great finesse, with great professionalism, and the other thing is, she is incredibly kind to those people who come to the thrift store that are in need of help.”

Sproul’s nomination stood out from the others because everything she does for the thrift store and for the Church is completely volunteer, “and she does it without even questioning or batting an eye or complaining at all,” said Shannon Morlock, the chamber’s office manager. 

“I think Pat is so deserving because of her hard, endless work,” said Vickie Salazar, one of the thrift shop’s first volunteers. She continues to work there three Saturdays a month. 

Sproul “doesn’t turn anybody down,” Salazar said. “She’s always available. She’s a very giving, giving lady. ... She’s a dear friend. She’s a friend to everyone.” 

The thrift store started at the suggestion of Msgr. Michael Winterer, the parish pastor from 1996 to 2011. 

Sproul worked with fellow parishioners Marty Kravetz and Linda Didier to get the store off the ground; she is very organized, very bright, easy to work with, always willing to help, warm and welcoming, and astute about getting others to help, Msgr. Winterer said.

Being named the recipient of the award came as a surprise, particularly because she didn’t know she had been nominated, said Sproul, who only this year began to be paid as manager of the thrift store. 

The people she worked with kept her going through the years, she said. “I love working with them.” 

In her remarks after receiving the award, Sproul thanked her family, friends and coworkers, then said, “I am certain that Mother Teresa might say that we together have accomplished many small things with great love.”