Opening our shop in September 2022 was about introducing our concept and efforts to the community. In just 450 sq ft in Palatine, we accomplished connecting with creators, teachers, and community members. We started to have more supporters and even "regular" customers who helped us spread the word. Just 30 days ago, we moved into a great space in Arlington Heights giving us 2,200 sq ft to provide a lot more items to the public and a great creative workshop area.
Thanks to amazing volunteers including Sharon, Evelyn, Kristine, Dawn, Michael, Sylvia, Cathy, Jill, Andy, Sanika, Mary, Nicole, Jason, Marek, Dave and Sara, we were able to move and setup quickly. Great folks helped provide secondhand furniture for the space and we obtained 13 versatile sheet music cabinets (on wheels!) that were the perfect addition. Having a very clear deadline was beneficial as WGN News was scheduled to film in the new shop! We opened the doors on May 1st and had WGN with us on May 6th.
From left: Evelyn, Beth (co-founder), Ana Belaval of WGN, Amanda Moller (co-founder), Sienna
Right picture: The Heinz family and friends with volunteer, Sharon, creating Mother's Day gifts for WGN filming
WGN's Around Town team with Ana Belaval came to film live and they were fabulous!! Great folks and they really helped spread the message about our organization's mission. While we are open to everyone, it was Teacher Appreciation Week so they kindly help shine a light on getting donations in for teachers and raising funds to provide them with free supplies. There were seven live segments and during the last segment we got to announce that the Gillies family had generously donated to Adopt-a-School for Virginia Lake Elementary School of Palatine District 15. This means all the teachers, interventionists and the librarian will get Teacher Cards to shop for free supplies from our shop next academic year!
We are thankful for all the folks coming in who saw us on WGN, those who have stopped by curious to see what finally filled the Radioshack spot and all our supporters from the Palatine shop. Quickly we have received hundreds and hundreds of pounds of donations to save from the landfill so we can get items to their new homes in the community. Several teachers and schools brought many boxes of items at the end of the school year to pay it forward to fellow teachers!
As we get to the end of our first month at 843 N Wilke Rd in Arlington Heights, we are happy to report that we have doubled the number of sales AND the amount of sales from the shop! In the next five months we'll need to double these numbers so we can stay in this great space. Spreading the word to have folks come shop with us is a huge help. Come shop or take a creative workshop with us; it all helps the environment, promoting sustainable creativity and getting low-cost and free supplies to teachers.
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