Consignment boutique launched to help children at St. Mary’s
For 10 years, the abovethe-garage room in Janette Crumley’s Virginia Beach home has served as headquarters for the children of Kid2Kid.
Started by her daughter and a friend when they were about 9 years old, the youthdriven group gathered in the space to do crafts, make artwork and plan fundraisers to support the children at St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children in Norfolk.
Last month, the room in her Thoroughgood home was christened by Kid2Kid as the Bargains and Blessings Boutique. It’s packed with high-end clothing, artwork, handbags and jewelry waiting to be sold to raise money for St. Mary’s.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they haven’t been able to take as many visitors as they would have liked. But they now see the walls falling and hope to reopen in January or February, and are accepting clothing and monetary donations.
“We’ve kind of reversed our thinking, and we’re going to do more collections of high-end clothing, jewelry, handbags, formal wear, art, those types of things,” said Crumley, whose husband, Scott, is president of Crumley Group Inc. and built a charity house to raise funds for St. Mary’s in 2010.
She said the group has some ideas to keep the shop up and running during the pandemic.
“(We’ll) do virtual tours, or a website with the items on it, and at some point,
we’d be looking for pop-up ideas, or places where we could go and take some of the items,” she said.
Robin Gasser, whose daughter helped launch Kid2Kid, said they may also jot down information from prospective buyers. For example, she said, if someone’s looking for a blue blazer and gives them a size, they may be able to help.
“When one pops up, we’ll give you a call and see what you think,” Gasser said.
She said the operation started in Crumley’s closet.
“She has been taking in high-end consignment clothing that was donated by each of our board members, friends, whomever, and taking these donations to consignment stores, and selling them for money,” Gasser said. “Of course, the consignment stores take a piece, as they should.”
At some point, they had so much merchandise to organize that they moved it to Crumley’s over-the-garage room and invited people over to shop and donate.
“We were amazed when we looked and saw what we had,” Gasser said.
Since their launch in November, they’ve sold several thousand dollars worth of items, and they can to donate more to St. Mary’s because they don’t have to give a percentage to the shops hosting them.
“If we’re given $20 for a pair of Lululemon yoga pants,” Gasser said, “that whole $20 goes to St. Mary’s.”
That is more important than ever, she said, because the pandemic has put a halt to some of St. Mary’s biggest fundraisers, like the annual gala hosted by its women’s auxiliary.
Crumley said previous galas have taken place in February and brought in $75,000 to $80,000, and more. But they have cancelled plans for the 2021 gala. She said the closet’s profits can help children at St. Mary’s buy things they need, mentioning iPads and gift cards to go places.
The boutique’s success has surprised Gasser, who said that one week, someone offered to match whatever their donated items sold for. “It is just amazing,” she said. “We have found people’s hearts just open up.”
For more information, call 757-403-4515, email info@SaintMarysKid2Kid. org or visit saintmaryskid2kid.org.