Hospital Gift Shop celebrates three years

After three years serving the Plains community, the Clark Fork Valley Hospital’s Mementos gift shop is celebrating their success.

In 2005, when the fledgling shop first opened in the old Clark Fork Valley Clinic, its future was anything but sure. Bea Dobbelaere, the president of the Clark Fork Valley Hospital Auxiliary said that staffing was a major concern in the first few months of operation, as the shop would require a staff of unpaid volunteers to operate.

“I don’t think anyone expected that it would be what it’s become,” Dobbelaere said.

Overcoming the odds of many first-year businesses, the gift shop is now thriving. It has been raising money for hospital equipment and non-medical services since it opened on Sept. 1, 2005. With the money raised from the gift shop, the Auxiliary has been able to buy items like a backboard for the new physical therapy pool, a dessert cooler for the cafeteria and a book cart for Acute Care patients.

Then, of course, there is the escort service the gift shop funds for cataract surgery, and the frames, the stuffed bears, the shirts, the caps, the blankets and rattles it provides for newborns.

“Our biggest fund raiser is the gift shop and we just do whatever is necessary to help out around here,” Dobbelaere said.

Dobbelaere said that the community support and the help from the five faithful volunteers who staff the small shop has been the backbone of what has kept the non-profit business going.

“I think the one thing that has impressed me is that the people are always willing to help,” she said. She also expressed gratitude for the service of her co-workers Donna Abrams, Bibi Smith, Laila Overberg and Alice Balbi, the manager of the shop.

Balbi said that for the group of volunteers the hardest and most enjoyable part each year is knowing what to stock in the gift shop and trying to anticipate the needs of the community.

“I just really enjoy the people and figuring out what to buy next for the shop, and since it’s a rural area we always need to keep new things,” Balbi said. Both Balbi and Dobbelaere travel twice a year to different shopping conventions where they enjoy browsing the large variety of potential items to put into the gift shop.

Their hard work has paid off in the form of repeat customers. They said that there are a lot of people who will drop by the hospital just to go to their gift shop and there are even a few people who drop by the shop on a habitual basis as they are traveling across the country.

Yet, while increasing customers and being a part of a successful business are one thing, the drive behind Mementos is all about what the volunteers are able to give back to the community.

“We get a lot more out of this than we give,” Balbi said about her volunteer work. She remarked that the best part of the job is talking with people each day as they enter the shop and knowing that the money is going to a good cause. Balbi said that she’s even been accused of loving her job too much, “I’ve been accused of sleeping in the store,” Balbi said laughing.

In the coming years, Dobbelaere said that the Auxiliary hopes that the gift shop will be able to continually keep expanding as the community diversifies and grows. But for now, she said that they are happy with the wide strides they’ve already made.

“We love the expansion and it has enabled the hospital to offer more services to more people,” Balbi said.