March 25, 2005

St. Francis Garden Gift Shop open for business

The Evergreen community of St. Francis of Assisi Parish welcomed the opening of the Garden Gift Shop March 20. Once a part of the storage room off the south side of the parish offices, many volunteers and contributors converted this tiny space into a small welcoming shop.

Saint Francis of Assisi parishioners Virginia Dunton and Colleen Cortese volunteer at the new Garden Gift Shop that recently opened at their church.

Among the many books and bibles are garden statuary, crosses, Communion and Baptism gifts, cards, the Vatican jewelry and gift collection, a selected children’s book corner and much more. Volunteers gather together outside the gift shop door where the green hills, budding vineyard and spring garden flowers greet them. 

The tiny shop will soon add Fair Trade items such as coffee and tea from Integrity Express. These are organic and sustainable produced food products. 

Mission statement
“We propose to establish a religious shop for St. Francis of Assisi and the community of Evergreen. This shop will carry gifts, books, video, CDs, as well as support items for seasonal celebrations, such as devotions, novenas, sacraments and provide educational material for age appropriate study,” according to the shop’s mission statement.

“The shop will support the needs of the community by providing merchandise to enrich youth programs, family support material, faith formation programs and the many diverse cultures of the parish and community”. 

Evergreen needs this type of merchandise. Many of our parishioners travel to Saratoga, Willow Glen, downtown San Jose and other shops outside our area to do religious gift shopping. This shop will help to encourage and enhance the family use of religious children’s books, Bibles and educational and devotional items. We hope to serve the larger Evergreen Christian Community with items needed by their congregations within the neighborhoods.

Pastor Msgr. John Sandersfeld had long dreamed of offering his parishioners the convenience of a religious shop at St. Francis of Assisi. His dreams have now come true. 

St. Francis Garden Gift Shop will be open Saturdays from 4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m., Sundays from 9:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and Sunday evenings from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. At this time, the shop is also scheduled to be open Wednesdays from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. until further notice.

Volunteers are now being trained to help during these open hours. For further information call the parish office (408) 223-1562 or e-mail Colleen_Cortese@SBCGlobal.net      

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Community is located at 5111 San Felipe Road, San Jose, Calif., 95135 at (408) 223-1562. For more information, visit the Web at: www.stfrancisofassisi.com.