Surely, these are the words of someone who cares about others.

“When you go through life and you’re doing things that you like, you don’t worry about anything. You just do your duty,” says Myrtle Phillips.

For Phillips that “duty” was as an early manager of the Renton Clothes Bank, where she volunteered for 14 years in the 1970s and 80s.

There was a great need in the Renton community then, just as now. The difference is in the numbers. She talks of 200 or 300 people a month who walked through the Clothes Banks door. Recently, the monthly record was set – nearly 800 people in search of something as basic as clothes.

“There were young families and immigrant families,” she said.

Not only did she distribute clothes from the bank, but she also picked them up from donors. The job was parttime, two days a week.

Today, Phillips, in her 80s, lives in the Renton Highlands.

“I enjoyed doing things for people who were in need,” she says.