Furnishing spaces: Skinner finds ways to give back to community

Photo by Becky Stinehour

Ashley Furniture HomeStore owner Sandra Skinner’s schedule is not for the faint of heart.

Three days a week she rises at 4:30 a.m. and heads to the gym to work out for an hour. By 6:30 a.m. she is at her Killeen store on W.S. Young. If it’s not a gym morning, she sleeps in until 5 a.m.

On nice days, when she doesn’t pick up her grandchildren from school, she rides her bike after work for a 20-mile round trip. “That’s a short ride,” she said, smiling. She prefers the 50-mile treks she takes with an organized bike group.

Sandra is a wife, mother, grandmother and business owner who can’t slow down. She and her husband, Ronnie, have a blended family of five children and eight grandchildren. There is always something to do.

Sofas, tables, chairs

Sandra is the second of five children born to Eddie and Marilyn Vale, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her dad owned a furniture store in Oklahoma before moving his family to Killeen in 1964 where he opened Furniture Factory Outlet.

“I grew up in Killeen in the furniture business,” Sandra said. “Dad had a store downtown. I was in the seventh grade when I started working in the office with my mom.”

When she became a teen she was given more responsibility, working side by side with her mom, handling the accounting, reconciling bank statements.

“I really enjoyed the accounting part of it, learning from mom,” she recalled.

Sandra worked in her parents’ store from 1975 to 1985. That’s when she opened her own store on 8th Street in downtown Killeen.

“I knew I always wanted to be my own boss,” she said. “I knew I could figure out a way to do it. I knew enough and was a little scared. I knew I always had the desire to work hard and as long as I work hard, I could make it. Timing made it happen right then.”

Her inspiration to work hard and treat people well was instilled by her parents at an early age and reinforced when her dad was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 80 in 1994. He was given a 5 percent chance of survival. But he lived 13 more years.

“Dad had a can-do attitude. He never gave up. He had the drive to get up and go every day,” Sandra said. After his first year of treatment, her parents opened a new store called Vales of Salado. If he wasn’t working at his own store, he would drive to Killeen to work on the sales floor at Sandra’s store.

“Dad worked until he was 85,” she said. “When he got sick at 80 he wasn’t ready to retire. After spending a year getting well, he opened up that small store for a couple of years.”

Sandra’s first store in downtown Killeen had three employees and 10,000 square feet of space including the warehouse. The showroom was just 7,500 square feet. Today she employs 70 people, owns three stores and a warehouse for a total of 65,000 square feet.

Serving the community

Sandra’s work doesn’t stop at the end of the business day.

If someone in the community needs help Sandra steps forward – another virtue she learned from her parents.
Her parents were always ready to help out those in need. One of her father’s favorite things to do was to handout turkeys every Thanksgiving to Fort Hood soldiers.

“My father gave away hundreds of turkeys to soldiers,” she said. “They’d come into the store and he’d give them to the soldiers. He was also a big supporter of the Boys and Girls Club. When he closed his store on Business 190 in Killeen he donated the professional wrestling ring he had built in the back of the store to the club. Dad always sponsored youth sports; there was always a team with his store name on it.

“I always saw my parents doing what they could if someone was in need,” she said. “It wasn’t about what they could get out of it. These were people who needed help. I asked myself what I would do if I was ever in that position. We wanted to find a way we could make a lasting difference in someone’s life. We understand family, how to pick up furniture, repair it.”

Sandra founded Furniture for Families. She works with Executive Director Woodrow (Woody) Hall and partner agencies, collecting gently used furniture to give to people in need free of charge. It could be a single mother with kids who have to sleep on the floor for lack of bedding, victims of domestic violence, soldiers who have lost everything in a fire and are forced to move to another home, or come back from deployment to find their home was plundered.

“We donate dinette sets, beds and sofas to families that have been in a crisis. We try to provide something for the family to eat on, sit on and sleep on,” Sandra said.

Partnering agencies screen applicants before referring them to Furniture for Families. “Churches, schools, they know of families and can identify most families in need,” Sandra said. Furniture for Families also works with Families in Crisis to furnish apartments for veterans transitioning from homelessness.

Humbled by achievement

Sandra has won numerous awards for her community service. She was one of the recipients of the 2018 KISD Distinguished Alumni Awards for her contributions to the community. She was one of three recipients of the 2018 Outstanding Achievement for Youth at the Central Texas Incredible Kids annual banquet for her work to provide scholarships for the senior members of the Boys & Girls Club and her continuing support of the club.

In 2015, she received the USO’s Above and Beyond award for her donation of furniture to the newly renovated USO building. She received the 2015 Fort Hood Good Neighbor award for her continuing work with Fort Hood. In 2008 she received the Ashley HomeStore Chairman’s Award for her community service.

While she is humbled by her achievements she said doesn’t do it for the accolades. “I don’t do things to get noticed. I do it to help someone who needs help. I’ve done many day rooms in barracks at Fort Hood. I quietly do what needs to be done or whatever is asked of us,” said Sandra.

One of the Sandra’s favorite service projects is scholarships for the Boys & Girls Clubs. She is a past board member and her husband, Ronnie, is active on the boards of the Clements Boys & Girls Club of Killeen and the Central Texas Boys and Girls Club. “It’s a great program. It helps many kids,” she said.

Five $2,000 scholarships are set up through the club to be awarded to senior club members who plan to attend college locally. “It’s amazing to see how hard life is for these kids,” she said. “Yet they excelled in academics and are ready to move onto the next level. We help those kids who might not have the opportunity to go to college to be able to go.”

Sandra said her hope for the future is to keep her business running, continue to provide a great working environment and family atmosphere for her employees so they can provide for their families.

“We have 60 families depending on us for their livelihood. I hope to make the right decisions to provide for employees so they can provide for their families. We want to keep our programs going for those in crises and be able to help where needed.”