The Spirit of Giving
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on December 24, 2020.
The spirit of giving was alive and well at the Perfect Gift Shop, where local children received gift certificates to shop for holiday gifts for their family. Conceived of by Jean Woods four years ago, the seasonal shop was located this year at 509 Main Street, across from the Floyd Baptist Church, and was open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through December 23.
New and lightly used donated gifts were priced with stickers, and children, ages 5 to 16, had to plan how to spend their gift certificates worth $25. The certificates were sent out and were available for pick-up for children who didn’t receive one at the New River Community Action Center and the Plenty! foodbank. Walk-ins were also welcome to receive a gift certificate. No income qualification was required.
The shop followed Covid-19 safety protocols, which included mask wearing, social distancing, temperature checks, the use of hand sanitizers, washing down wrapping stations after each shopper’s gifts were tallied up and limiting the number of shoppers in the building at one time. The spacious festively lit venue in the Floyd Baptist Church annex building has a waiting room lobby, which helped volunteers monitor foot traffic. Some visitors were asked to wait in their cars when the shop became busy, and others may chose to call (540-449-4420) to make an appointment for a private shopping experience. The Floyd Mask Brigade provided hand-made masks for those who needed them.
About 15 young shoppers in total filled their shopping bags in the first two hours of opening day. Woods, Karen Baker and Joan Earman greeted shoppers, helped them as needed and wrapped presents (or used a donated supply of cloth bags). They noted that the shop was in need of more volunteers to take shifts (hours are approved for ACE credit).
Following the closing of the shop on December 23, Woods posted on the shop’s Facebook page: “The Perfect Gift Shop helped over 300 Floyd children find the perfect gift for their loved ones this year! We were blessed by the many adults who gave of their time to make this happen, and the many businesses and individuals in Floyd who shared treasure. Thank you all so very much! We are closed until December 2021. But we will be working hard for next year’s pop-up shop, starting early in the new year. Stay tuned for volunteer opportunities.” – Colleen Redman
December 28th, 2020 7:34 am
Lovely! The shop is so festive! I think it’s true what Winston Churchill said: “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”