Sister Bay nursing home and assisted living facility, Serenity Spring Senior Living at Scandia Village, has changed hands twice in the last few years. The nursing home, which has been owned by nonprofit companies since its inception in 1981, has its first for-profit owner as of last year.
Continuum Healthcare purchased Scandia Village in 2023, changing the name to Serenity Spring Senior Living at Scandia Village.
That change left the Senior Citizens Agency of Northern Door Auxiliary, or SCAND, in an interesting position. SCAND is a nonprofit that originally formed to establish the nursing home in 1975, and has functioned as a fundraising organization for the home since it was built in 1981.
SCAND operates a thrift store, Bargains Unlimited, and has used sale proceeds to fund everything from infrastructure improvements, vehicle purchases and employee bonuses to parties and events for residents of the nursing home. Since its inception, sales from the store have provided at least $5 million in gifts, goods, services and funding to Scandia Village.
But now, according to SCAND Auxiliary Board President Susan Hoffert, “we can’t give money to a business.” In Wisconsin it is legal for a nonprofit to give money to a for-profit as long as the funds are being used to further the nonprofit’s mission.
The benefit to the for-profit should not outweigh the benefit to the nonprofit, and navigating that complexity “would be a little bit hairy at this point,” Hoffert said, so the board has been holding the funds since last year. (Disclosure: Hoffert also is a donor to Knock.)
During that time, board members and Bargains Unlimited store employees have been fielding a lot of questions from customers and volunteers about what was being done with funds from sales, she said.
For the foreseeable future, proceeds from Bargains Unlimited sales will not go to Serenity Springs Senior Living at Scandia Village, as SCAND does not have the volunteers or infrastructure to do more than operate the store and give money where it is needed, Hoffert explained.
Without another nonprofit to administer the money, the organization is taking a broader view of local needs, and the board recently decided getting money moving into the community would benefit their mission rather than holding it indefinitely.
SCAND’s mission is “the identification, provision and coordination of services and facilities for Scandia Village and the senior citizens of Door County and support of facilities for those and for others who may benefit by their use,” according to the organization’s most recent 2022 filing with the Internal Revenue Service.
Bargains Unlimited had a very good year in sales last year, Hoffert said, with 4 percent growth from 2023 to 2024. The organization reported $412,114 in revenue in 2022, the most recent financial information available.
Northern Door Child Care and the Sister Bay Liberty Grove Fire Department were on the receiving end of the SCAND board’s decision. Each organization got a $25,000 grant from SCAND in 2024, according to a Dec. 24 press release.
SCAND’s board felt it was important to let the community know they are still here and still care by shifting attention to all residents of Northern Door, Hoffert said.
Northern Door Child Care plans to use the $25,000 toward a renovation and expansion that will eventually allow for the facility to care for up to 160 children. The Sister Bay Liberty Grove Fire Department will use the funds to replace self-contained breathing apparatus units that protect first responders from hazardous gases and particulates during fires. The 32 units that need replacing due to age cost between $7,500 and $8,000 each, for a potential total of $256,000.
“When you have good care, it attracts people to live here,” Hoffert said, and enhancing the community as a whole is in line with SCAND’s mission to support the residents of Serenity Spring Senior Living at Scandia Village.
Though SCAND is no longer providing bonuses for nursing home employees, Hoffert said she was told by Continuum leadership that the facility is fully staffed and she assumed Continuum was providing employee incentives of its own. Representatives for the company could not be reached for comment.
As far as what the future holds for SCAND and the locally popular Bargains Unlimited, there is some uncertainty, Hoffert said. In an interview in early 2024, Continuum representatives said the company had no plans to close or sever ties with the charity thrift shop. SCAND leases the building the store operates out of and though the building is owned by Continuum, SCAND funded its construction in 1995.
“We feel invested in the building,” Hoffert said. “We put so much into it.”
SCAND’s current building lease was originally negotiated with Sanford Health, the nonprofit that owned the nursing home before Continuum, Hoffert said, and SCAND is still in negotiations with Continuum for a new lease. The lease between SCAND and Sanford allows SCAND to stay in the building as long as it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and Continuum only offered a one-year lease, she said.
“We declined,” Hoffert stated. “The ball is in their court.”
SCAND is also meeting with a task force made up of community members and Door County Community Foundation president and CEO Bret Bicoy sometime soon, she said, to see what possibilities exist to continue supporting Serenity Spring Senior Living at Scandia Village.
Correction: A photo caption in a previous version of this story listed the subjects of a photo at Northern Door Children’s Center in the incorrect order. The caption has been corrected.