Expect to see Santa Claus and groove along to Christmas tunes in the freshly renovated Delta Hospital Auxiliary Society’s (DHAS) Christmas store this Sunday for their grand opening.
Nearly a year after a fire that devastated the operation’s store on Dec. 27, 2020 auxiliary volunteers are delighted to open right on time to create some festive cheer.
“For us, the Christmas shop makes huge revenue. It’s a very popular shop, and people look forward to it. They’ve been asking ‘are you going to have a Christmas shop?’, because last year, it was kind of muddled in with some household stuff,” says Joanna James, the thrift shop’s coordinator.
The shop, which will open at 10 a.m. and run to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 7 for their grand opening, has new floors, counters and shelves and a new coat of paint.
“I really want to thank the public for bearing with us through this and our volunteers who have kept the shop going through this time, because we can’t do without the public’s donations, without them coming to buy from us,” says James.
The road to reopening was rather perilous, with the pandemic being one of the biggest obstacles the team battled and are still battling against.
Not only did it affect how people could shop in the stores, but it majorly impacted their volunteering numbers.
“Some of [our volunteers] are in their eighties or nineties, so we’ve done very well to come back, and for a lot of them, it’s a pleasure to be back with other people and be social and be making money for the hospital, which is our aim,” says James.
Capacity limits, masking, and social distancing are still in effect at the DHAS thrift shop operation and the volunteers look forward to seeing you there on Sunday.
