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SCAWS Opens New Store
Friday, June 24, 2005
Submitted by Joanne Bangay
June 21st, the first day of summer was an exciting day for Shelburne County Adult Workshops, it was opening day for our new retail store-Artful Endeavours. The store is a project funded through HRSDC under the Job Creation Partnership and Skills Link Program. We have a beautiful space of approximately 700 square feet. This space is divided into a retail display area, a coffee shop as well as two separate rooms for working on crafts, space for a computer, staff room, etc. Many volunteer hours were put in by several very dedicated people to paint, install plumbing and cupboards, etc. The teamwork of many has made the job easy. Everyone who was involved in setting up the store is very proud and pleased with the positive comments received to date.
We have a wide assortment of items and we can truly say that we have something for everyone....from bubblegum for the kids to beautiful paintings and quilts. We have several local crafters who are leasing space to sell their items and we also have beautiful handmade items from Bonny Lea Farm, L’Arche Homefires (AppleWicks), Ark Industries and of course our own very talented crew from Heritage Hall, Sea Spray and Atlantic Waves.
When you truly believe that anything is possible and you have a committed group of staff, clients/employees, residents, and volunteers all working together towards the same goal, great things can happen. Last year, when we started meeting as a group to develop a new strategic plan and mission statement one of the key goals was to always ensure that our communities of Shelburne, Barrington and Lockeport are truly inclusive. We did not simply want to “talk the talk” but wanted to actually ensure that what we said we are doing on paper is actually what we do each and every day. All of the new programs developed, the new projects started have been possible because everyone involved remained positive and did not lose focus of our goal even when it seemed that things might not go just the way we hoped.
We would encourage everyone to take some time and visit Shelburne County, and make sure you leave time to stop in, have a coffee and something sweet and purchase a hand crafted item from “Artful Endeavours”. |
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