COEUR d'ALENE - Barb Smalley was born in 1956 in Austin, Minn. She came from a family of 13 children. Her father was a farmer and her mother a teacher.

"We were not rich in material goods, but I enjoyed a wonderful childhood, and to this day our entire family is still close," she said. "I lost one brother who was a Vietnam Veteran, so I am happy St. Vincent de Paul has special services we offer to all veterans in need."

Smalley moved to Coeur d'Alene 26 years ago with her husband Marty, who worked in the lumber industry. She worked in the travel industry at that time.

"My husband had lived here before, and he said it was a beautiful place to live, so we just picked up and moved," she said.

After working in the travel industry for a few years, Smalley got a job as an advertising representative with The Coeur d'Alene Press, where she spent 10 years in the business.

Her husband passed away six years ago and her best friend and daughter Jessica, 24, is going for her veterinarian degree at Washington State University.

She also has three adult stepchildren, and at age 57, she has eight grandchildren.

Smalley likes to spend her days reading, running and exercising, and gardening. Her passion, though, is socializing and her job at St. Vincent de Paul.

You mentioned that you like to read. What are you reading now?

I am reading Mindset, and it's a really good book.

Before my daughter Jessica went off to WSU, they had her read this book.

Some people have a fixed mindset, and some people have a growth mindset - and there are a lot of people who have a little of both.

But if you have a fixed mindset, you kind of just want to stay in a certain comfort zone. You are afraid to jump out of that because you don't want to make a mistake, and some people are successful in that.

But if you want to have more fun and success in life, you want the growth mindset and you want to embrace those mistakes and change.

Fear of success?

Exactly, that's why this is a really good book, because it makes me think about it all of the time. If I have to do something that's not in my comfort zone I'm like 'ugh,' but you should feel good about it.

I really like this book.

You talked about your husband Marty and how that affected you.

I will share with you, my husband passed away. He was waiting for a heart transplant. He was on the list for two years, and prior to that he was a picture of health. Nobody ever knew that he had a problem, but his body was producing a lot of cholesterol. He had three major heart surgeries, a triple (bypass) and two quads but then he would be perfectly fine.

Then his arteries would just fill back up again. When you're with somebody that is waiting for a transplant, and you would never know it because their attitude is so good, it really makes you appreciate life and I am real passionate about that. Jessica and I do a run in his honor every year.

What is the run?

Cheers to life. This would be the third or fourth year. Usually we have it in April because April is organ donation month, but Jessica is in school so this year we will wait until May or June.

Losing your husband had to be tough.

I think I just grew from the experience, and I really don't take life for granted anymore. I think that was really good. You might not want to experience that, but I learned I am lucky to be around the people who are great in my life and that's why we celebrate with things like the steak fry and the comedy night.

Can you tell me a little about your career?

When I came to Idaho, I worked in the travel industry and then I went to work for The Press as an advertising representative for about 10 years. Then I came to work at St. Vincent de Paul about three years ago. I just wanted to do something where I feel like I make a difference, and I really do like working here.

When I first started working here, the people who are struggling or homeless made me a little uncomfortable, but now I've learned that they really are not different than you or I.

They just have circumstances that they are dealing with?

Yes, we are the same people, facing different circumstances. That is exactly right. I know people who are super successful that have physical or mental problems and they could be out on the street tomorrow if they didn't have people to help them along the way.

When you started here, did you start as development director?

Yes. St. Vincent de Paul has been around for 68 years. They started in 1946, but they never really had a development director. Jeff Conroy is my boss, and Jeff and the board thought that they should get somebody out into the community and let them know what we do, because most people still think of St. Vincent de Paul as the thrift stores. They have no idea of the social services side, but I think that is getting better.

Your job is more like a community liaison then?

Yep, get out there and network and represent St. Vincent de Paul, and then we've started more special events. We do three major events. In April we do the comedy night, in July we do the steak fry and in November it's homeless awareness month, so we do a lot of different things that month.

The biggest one is the soup event at the fairgrounds, but we do the veterans run and we do the fashion show so people can see what we get. I like people to know that for every $5 donation to the thrift store, it feeds eight people in our dinning hall, which is huge. People like to know that, and they like to know that everything they donate here stays in this community.

You guys launched a capital campaign last year. How is that going?

Yes, thank you for bringing that up. Well, we started the capital campaign and it has been about a year now. Our idea for the original campaign was to raise about a million dollars, and we picked four projects. We wanted to increase the size of our soup kitchen. We wanted to purchase the Help Center because we lease it now from the city. We wanted to enclose the back of the thrift store and we want to build a multi-purpose room at the transitional housing for the kids.

Mountain West Bank did give us enough money, so now we can use that to increase the size of the dining hall, so our main focus now is the purchase of the Help Center.

Why purchase the Help Center?

The main reason is because we lease it from the city. The city has been real good about working with us, but that could change. You never know what can happen. We want to keep it because it is a great location - not only for us, but for the other agencies that work out of here. We actually have 19 other agencies that work out of here. The building is close to the rest of the campus. It's close to the bus stop. It's just a great location.

How much have you raised for the purchase so far?

Our goal is $600,000 and we have raised close to $200,000 so far. We are really going to start pushing that here soon.

Then you have other fundraisers to pay for the different services you provide, like the winter warming shelters?

Yes, we have a lot of services that we don't get any funding for and we depend on donations and events. The warming center is one of them, so we have to raise money to maintain that warming center, and actually it costs $5 per night for every person in our shelter. Last winter was really a long, cold winter, so it really cost us a lot of money.

You know we get a lot of people here at the Help Center all year long. We get about 100 people a day coming through here, so we try to keep food and coffee in here. Something I should mention is that when we have a need, we get a lot of donations from the community. Last winter, I put a press release in the paper saying we needed food donations, and we got flooded with donations. We got so many donations we actually had to build a pantry. So, The Press really works.

Let's talk about some of the events.

The comedy night is in its third year. We felt like people should enjoy life. We don't make a lot of money with our events because we try to keep them affordable. The comedy night is only $20. The steak fry is just $25, and the soup event is only $10. We keep them low so more people can enjoy them. It's not all about raising money; It is about raising awareness too. If we make $10,000, I would be really happy, but some of these events in town make $100,000. When you only charge $20, you don't make a lot of money after paying for expenses.

That sounds like a lot of work.

What we do at St. Vincent de Paul is we have committees for everything. To be successful, you have to have committees and those are people from the community that make up all those committees. So, when I came here, Jeff asked me if I knew anybody in the community to put together an event committee, and I thought 'sure I can.' We did the fashion show this year for the first time, and I called a few people in the community and it went really well. We went into our warehouse and put together outfits and we had people from the community as models. It was a great event and it was a lot of fun.

So what is the toughest part of the job?

The toughest part of the job is seeing people who are struggling. Sometimes that is sad, especially when they are children or veterans or seniors that are struggling and oftentimes it is no fault of their own.

What is the best part of the job?

I love my job because it gives me an opportunity to get individuals and businesses involved. In doing so, they feel better about themselves, which makes them happier and more successful in their everyday life. At the same time, we are helping our friends and neighbors who are in need.