When Jackie White re-opened the SHAVA Gift Shop at the Sturgeon Community Hospital in November, she pushed the biggest wheelchair through it first.
That way, volunteer Dorothy Branson says, they really made sure that was enough space at their new location.
Branson has volunteered with the Sturgeon Hospital Auxiliary Volunteer Association (SHAVA) since 1988.
White volunteered with them for 26 years, 21 of which she spent working Monday evening shifts at the shop.
She is now the president of the association.
When the first gift shop opened at the former hospital location, it was called The Cat’s Whiskers.
Since then, it not only changed its name but moved around numerous times.
Both Branson and White vividly remember the different locations.
“I am sure (the first one) was a closet,” laughs Branson.
The baby clothes hung from a handle on the wall outside, with a roll-down door marking the entrance.
They did not have a cash register, and their best selling items were chips and pop.
White said the shop grew when it moved to the new hospital. Now it accommodates several customers, lots of different products … and big wheelchairs.
“When we came over here to our first one, it was heaven. The second one was really good, the third one was … ,” White laughs and makes an emphatic hand motion.
“The fourth one was in the basement and the fifth is the best one.”
For the last three years, the gift shop was relocated to the basement to make room for the hospital’s construction project.
Because of this, sales declined significantly and volunteer numbers were low. This is still a problem at the new location.
“We have a really good core of volunteers but, yes, we are always looking for more,” White says.
“Some of our volunteers are older. They can’t lift the boxes and it’s good to have two in the event that someone is late.”
Walking in the doors of the new store, customers first see the sales counter and a small refrigerator with flowers, mostly roses decorated in gold glitter and Christmas colours.
There is Christmas wear and stocking stuffers, scarves and magazines, handbags and shrugs, used books and stuffed animals.
In the back, an entire corner is dedicated to newborns, with knitted sweaters and little pyjamas. And, of course, there are always last-minute toothbrushes, shampoos and combs for sale.
White says the best sellers during the Christmas season were, believe it or not, square, red and white tablecloths.
And then there’s the usual odd merchandise such as expandable backscratchers, shower caps with devil horns, and pins.
“The things you think would never sell, sell,” she says, adding that all items are GST free.
Branson says she takes her greatest enjoyment from the little children coming in to buy gifts and stuffed animals.
On Halloween people walk in wearing masks and scare her a little, but for the rest of the year the shop really feels like family, she says.
“Particularly the staff and sometimes the people who have to stay here longer. They get to know us and we get to know them,” she says.
And despite the changes, the year-round top sellers haven’t changed all that much either.
“Pop and chips,” she laughs.
