When Tara Wolfe joined Goodwill’s Sebastian Good Goods Center as a Team Member, she was stepping back from years of retail management. Her reason was her son.
The hours at her previous job ran late into the night. Her son was exhausted, falling behind, and arriving late to school. Wolfe had the management experience, the store knowledge, and the instincts built from years in retail. What she didn’t have was a schedule her family could survive. So she made a trade.
“On my old job I worked until late at night, and it affected my son’s work in school,” Wolfe said. “He was exhausted all the time and late for school.”
With Wolfe working Goodwill’s hours, her son went from failing grades to A’s. He is now graduating early.
“With me working better hours at Goodwill,” she said, “he went from failing grades to A’s.”
A few months into her time at Sebastian GGC, Wolfe was asked to step in as Team Leader Coach at Oslo Good Goods Center on a temporary basis while a permanent hire was found. Team Leader Coaches manage daily operations, develop their Team Members, and own how a store runs. Wolfe stepped in and ran it. When Goodwill finished its search, she was the hire.
She has led the Oslo GGC team ever since. Performance has climbed, and she points to her Team Members as the reason.
“I try to be firm but supportive,” she said. “I want each of them to be successful at Goodwill.”
Wolfe came in as a Team Member and became a Team Leader Coach within months, on the strength of showing up and doing the job. Goodwill Palm Beaches & Treasure Coast offers structured pathways for team members looking to advance, with competitive pay and benefits and leadership opportunities for people who are ready to take them on.
Beyond Goodwill, she’s working on something else entirely. Wolfe wants to open a plant nursery built around handmade Fairy Gardens: entirely hand-crafted pieces, nothing from a commercial catalog. She already makes clay garden gnomes. It’s a slower ambition, one she’s building alongside her work at Oslo GGC.
“I feel I’ve come a long way in a short period of time at Goodwill,” she said. “I look forward to many more successful years.”
She traded a management title for a predictable schedule and ended up with more than she’d planned: a son on the honor roll, a store she runs, and a growing collection of clay gnomes waiting to become something more.
If you’re looking for a career with room to grow, Goodwill Palm Beaches & Treasure Coast is hiring. Visit experiencegoodwill.org to explore current openings and learn more about what a career at Goodwill can look like.
