For Anita Mills, the best part about volunteering at the North Valley Hospital gift store has been the friends she’s made.

“I really enjoy the customers, the management, the volunteers and especially the personnel,” she said. “I’ve always enjoyed volunteering. I’ve made many friends in each place I’ve volunteered, and especially here I’m happy for the friends I have.”

Mills has volunteered behind the counter at the gift store since moving to Whitefish in 1998. Previously, she did similar volunteer work in Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

Currently she volunteers once a week at the hospital, residing behind the shop counter on Wednesdays. The store is filled with all sorts of Whitefish-specific treasures, like clothes, toys, books and jewelry. She also used to volunteer in the hospital kitchen in the old North Valley Hospital building.

Volunteering has always been an avenue for her to meet new people, she said. After leaving her home state of Wisconsin for Phoenix after her “childhood sweetheart” husband’s retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1967, volunteering was the best way to introduce herself to new faces.

“I expected to stay in Wisconsin for the rest of my life, but here I am and I do not know very many people. So I felt it was a way to get acquainted,” she said. “When you’re new in the area, you meet friends. You meet the hospital personnel. You meet the people who come in from different areas, and it’s very, very interesting.”

“I am still very close to many of the volunteers that I worked with there,” she added.

Family drew Mills and her husband, Jim, to Whitefish. She has five children – Russ, Larry, Rayne, Greg and Jeanne – as well as 14 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Mills said she gets to see family nearly every day and she loves to have people over for meals. She also enjoys cross-stitching, crocheting and travel.

Through her husband’s service, the two got their fair share of travel around the world. Mills pointed to Germany, Italy and Maui as some of their favorite destinations.

She’s content with where she ended up, however.

“I like the mountains and Glacier Park. The community of Whitefish, to me, is very impressive,” she said. “I like everything, I guess.”

“Except the winters,” she added.