SPRINGDALE — St. Raphael’s gift shop isn’t new but, thanks to some extensive volunteer efforts, its merchandise, website and hours of operation all have been expanded.
Dee Lea has led the efforts to improve the shop in recent months after she was approached by parish officials about undertaking the task.
“I sat down with (business manager) Rebecca Hodges, (facilities manager) Carlos Rodriguez and Father (John Connell) … They wanted to know if I’d be interested (in developing) a proposal of long-term and short-term goals of things that needed to be done in the gift shop,” she said.
Lea was interested. “I immediately said, Yes, I would like to do that.”
While some of the other northwest Arkansas parishes have small rooms or curio cases of religious items, Lea believes St. Raphael’s shop, with about 400 square feet of dedicated space, is the largest and has the most extensive merchandise for Catholic customers. To find another shop as well stocked, customers would have to travel more than an hour away.
Her first step was to actually work in the gift shop, so as to better learn the merchandise and what customers wanted. She quickly started rounding up volunteers to staff the shop so it could be open regular hours throughout the week as well as on weekends.
“I’d been hearing some people were feeling a little discouraged — they would come to the gift shop and it would be closed or there would be nobody in there,” Lea said.
Staffers from the church office, which is adjacent to the gift shop, would open the shop upon request, but that was becoming a distraction from the regular work, Lea said.
Now, a pool of about 10 volunteers regularly staff the shop on weekdays — 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to noon on Friday. There are also weekend hours.
“One of our best and busiest days is Sunday after Masses,” Lea said. “I knew we needed to stay open on Sundays, but I felt to reach out to other parishes and communities, we (also) needed to be open on Saturdays. A lot of our customers are not parishioners.”
Weekend hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sundays.
To help spread the word, Lea wanted an expanded presence on the church website. She enlisted help from Sandra Ware, who’s been overseeing the St. Raphael website for about four years.
Ware explained that the gift shop hours and a contact person were all the information listed previously. “But (Lea) wanted it more separate and Father John said we could make a direct link … to try to highlight it a little more.”
Visitors to www.straphaelcc.org can see examples of merchandise and books available. Lea is pleased with the results.
“Now, (people) can go online and they can look and say, ’Wow, this is better than I thought — it’s not just a closet. It’s a real Catholic shop,’” Lea said.
Lea said she tries to order Catholic rather than general Christian merchandise.
“I’m trying to stay Catholic. I think that’s our niche. We can’t compete with the (Christian) chain stores, but we have no competition when staying with Catholic merchandise.”
Lea said she’s finding some unexpected benefits in helping with the gift shop. “I’m a cradle Catholic, but I don’t know my faith as well as someone who’s gone through RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). This gift shop, I definitely think, is making me know more about my Catholic faith.”
