Heavy lifting: How Alexis Mansfield found her place at Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers

MOSES LAKE — At Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers Inc., 2566 N. Frontage Road in Ephrata, there are auctioneers, of course – and there are those who do everything but. Nineteen-year-old Alexis Mansfield is one of the latter.

Her official title is operations assistant, she said. She fills title paperwork, does inventory, uploads information online, creates accounts, answers phone calls, but also runs machinery and gets dirty.

Mansfield was born and raised in Moses Lake, she said.

“Up until I got married, I have lived in the same house my entire life,” she said. “I was born here in Samaritan Hospital.”

Working at Yarbro sort of came by fate, she said.

Two years ago, she was working at Surf ‘n Slide Water Park in Moses Lake, and the last day of the season was a Monday, she said. Her then-boyfriend, now-husband knew Chuck Yarbro, who was in high need of workers, even on a temporary basis.

While her boyfriend couldn’t do it, he recommended her for the job. She started Tuesday morning. The position was supposed to be a week long, she said. It was just to bridge the gap while Yarbro awaited applications.

But that week, she must have impressed him, she said. She didn’t await instructions and just worked on things she saw needed to get done, and he offered her the job.

At the time, she wanted to be a bank teller, she said, but she figured she’d accept the offer and apply to other positions in the meantime.

In her two years since she started, she’s never filed a single application, she said. She truly loves the job, and it’s the first time she felt that way.

It really is a family, she said. If personal stuff comes up that interferes with work, they’re very understanding.

“They’re phenomenal people to work with,” she said.

Every day she does something different, too, she said.

The hardest part? It’s a lot of outside work.

“In the summer, the heat,” she said, “and in the winter, the cold.”

At Yarbro, she does equal parts traditional female and male roles, she said. She’s joked before that her replacement likely will be a guy.

Mansfield has generally been more of a tomboy, she said. In the past, she used to make money doing yard work. At 14, she started training in karate, which is how she met her husband, she said. Now, she has a provisional black belt and plans to continue up the ranks.

Her future’s wide open, she said, but her work at Yarbro has taught her that atmosphere – work family – is as important as the job itself.

Sam Fletcher can be reached via email at sfletcher@columbiabasinherald.com.