Haynes gives decades of service

Paula Haynes, a Grant native, officially retires from Hatch’s Super Foods today, Wednesday, Sept. 30 after decades of dedicated service to the Grant community.

Paula and her husband, William “Tom” Haynes, are both retired as of today, and plan to spend their time traveling. Tom retired from his position at Frenchman Valley, which he has held for 30 years, back to when it was known as Grant Cooperative.

Haynes said she and her husband plan to visit all of the National Parks in the country, and will make stops to see family they don’t typically get to visit.

Haynes spent eight years at Hatch’s, where she started as a cashier and moved her way up to assistant manager. Her day-to-day tasks involved paperwork, helping with ordering, covering things when the manager was gone and whatever else needed done.

Before her time at Hatch’s, Haynes has held a number of jobs in the area, each benefitting the community in a different way.

Her senior year of high school, she got a job as a candy striper at the hospital, before becoming an aid there for 12 years. She then moved to Golden Ours Convalescent Home for 12 years.

For a while, Haynes left Grant and worked in Ogallala for Paks Developmental Services, an agency for developmentally challenged adults.

Haynes then returned to Grant to manage Kwik Stop for what she estimated was around eight years. For a short period, she was even the district manager.

She then worked for Scoular, where she handled bookkeeping. Haynes was a manager at Scoular for a while.

Haynes then again returned to working in Ogallala, where she was employed with US Recycling.

Her last position before working at Hatch’s was cooking for the school for a brief period of time.

Of all her jobs, Haynes said she cannot pick a favorite, because she has loved them all. She did, however, find her job at Paks to be rewarding because of the progress she was able to see with her clients.

She mentioned she also enjoyed her job at Hatch’s, as she loves working with people.

In her free time, Haynes attends Grant E-Free church, and though Covid has prevented her from being involved in much as of late, she has been involved in numerous activities, both in and out of church.

She has been a Sunday school teacher, a den mother and a scout leader. Both she and her husband were Awana Cubbies leaders for 25 years, which is a bible study program at Grant E-Free for preschoolers.

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