When the Prineville Senior Center lunch menu comes out every month, seniors in the area notice and mark the dates. Daily crowds can be as large as 50 people.
For over 40 years, lunch has been served Monday through Friday, and it’s always different. Seniors get a salad, a main dish, sides, dessert and a beverage, which is served to them like a restaurant. If they can’t pay the $5 suggested donation, “We feed them anyway,” said Karen Rabenberg, who serves as president of the board that runs the program.
The Senior Center’s funding comes from several sources but is largely dependent on Neat Repeat, Prineville’s hub for secondhand clothes, shoes, homewares, books, accessories, art and hardware.
Karen Rabenberg, who grew up in Prineville, returned when she retired to run the Senior Center.
“Financially, we do what we can do. Without Neat Repeat, we’d have been out of business a long time ago,” Karen said.
Neat Repeat takes up the entire Morse building in Prineville, a 70-year-old building.
Two buildings, one mission.
The Senior Center occupies a building that was a bowling alley in the 1960s and 70s and received an extensive remodel with a federal community block grant in 2020.
The Senior Center behind Neat Repeat is funded in part by the sales from Neat Repeat.
Neat Repeat is housed in the Morse Building, a 70-year-old structure that has housed a post office, furniture store, county office, youth center, accounting office, beauty shop, and who-knows-what else before becoming Prineville’s resale hotspot.
Neat Repeat is one of the most popular places in Prineville. Shoppers come from all over.
Together these buildings occupy almost an entire city block in this former timber town.
The Morse building needs a long list of updates, and this local non-profit struggles to fund them. Their priority is feeding and serving seniors, so issues like flooding and bad lighting get put on the back burner.
A no-cost lighting upgrade from Energy Trust of Oregon.
Karen first heard about Energy Trust and the no-cost lighting offer at a Chamber of Commerce meeting she watched on Facebook.
A representative from Energy Trust was there to discuss a program to upgrade the lighting for qualified businesses and mentioned that it was at no cost to the customer.
Karen Rabenberg and Peg McCutchen stand in the racks of clothing sold at the thrift store.
“I went, oh my gosh, I’ve got to get in on this for Neat Repeat,” Karen said.
Karen got on the phone and got all the information she needed. After emailing back and forth, a representative from Energy Trust came out, looked at the space and said it was a go to change out the lighting.
Over 8,000 square feet, Neat Repeat sells just everything but appliances and electronics.
The project involved converting old fluorescent tubes to LEDs, and there are a lot of them in the 8,000 sq ft space. Eleven rows of up to 20 light fixtures illuminate the main part of the building, which recently had its wiring updated.
The Business Lighting trade ally and direct installer from the Valley drove in and completed the project in two days.
Neat Repeat didn’t even have to shut down.
“We got on their schedule, and they came in and installed the new lights,” Karen said. “It was wonderful for us. Anytime a nonprofit can find someone to take care of a need like that— the lighting was ancient.
“And changing the tubes? You saw how high the ceilings are. LEDs have a 20-year lifespan or something like that. It was a godsend.”
Visibly better
“It really made a difference,” said Peg McCutchen, who manages Neat Repeat. “It makes it more pleasant to walk in and be able to see. What an improvement.”
Manager Peg McCutchen, 85, has worked at Neat Repeat for nearly 20 years.
“Like night and day,” Beverly Gray said with a smile from behind the counter. “Who would have thought that improving the sight of things can improve the sale of things?”
Neat Repeat worker Beverly Gray helps ring up Brian Martell, who was traveling through.
“It’s nice to see!” Karen repeated with a laugh, adding “To be able to do something so costly for a no-cash outlay. It’s just here, enjoy it, that’s pretty amazing.”
In the end, Energy Trust’s no-cost lighting offer has made Neat and Repeat, and Prineville, shine a little brighter.
To date, Energy Trust has completed more than 1,600 no-cost lighting installations at local businesses across the state, contributing to significant energy savings.
See if you qualify for an upgrade.
Questions? Give us a call at 1.800.326.2917 or send us an email at lighting@energytrust.org. Interpretation services are available at no cost for non-English speakers.