Author Archives: Vivian
A Craft Store’s Journey
By Vivian Nunez
The United States was hit by a terrible recession in 2008 and four years later it’s still trying to dig itself out of it. A small craft shop is a testament to how dynamic thinking is an essential part of the solution. Little Shop of Crafts, a craft shop on 94th Street, has managed not only to survive the recession, new competition, and the ever-growing rise in the craft trend, but also put smiles on children’s faces while doing it.
Children enjoy coming into Little Shop, “because it’s fun for them and they get to paint whatever they want,” said Alicia, an eight-year-old frequent customer since the age of three.
The atmosphere at Little Shop of Crafts is welcoming and just messy enough that, whether you are a kid or an adult, getting creative with your painting techniques is justified. Yet, Little Shop of Crafts’ homey feel did not spring up over night. Since its grand opening seven years ago, Joy Patrini, the West Side store’s manager, has guided its growth by standing by one simple rule: “Our motto is lets stick to what we do and do it right,” said Joy.
Despite, craft stores having become a hot commodity in New York City, Little Shop of Crafts does see this as a negative. “There are a lot of craft studios similar to us, but they charge for time and they charge a studio fee, or you have to join, or you have to take a class in order for you to go.” said Joy, “We’re very low key we just want you to come and relax.” Joy grounds herself on Little Shop’s vision and the fact that the first store Herb Goldberg, Little Shop of Crafts owner, opened is still thriving even after 25 years.
Kids and parents alike are able to find a safe haven in Little Shop of Crafts that takes them away from their daily lives. The staff at Little Shop is on constant alert to make sure the customers’ bonding opportunities are seamless. They understand that in “a lot of places the adults either are not satisfied or the children just don’t like going where the parents want to go,” said Dawn, Assistant Manager, but Little Shop “kind of draws right in the middle.”
In addition to bringing happiness to children on a daily basis, Little Shop is also beginning to target adults. As a result of the recession and a decrease from “10 parties a weekend to about 3 parties a weekend, if that,” said Joy, Little Shop has embraced adult evening hours, where adults are able to paint any ceramic in the store alongside a glass of wine. “So Wednesday through Saturday we have adult evening hours and we serve complimentary wine for them,” said Joy. In addition to the wine hours over crafts, adults are also able to rent out the space for their bachelorette parties or bridal showers. Nonetheless, the profit evening hours and other adult parties bring in still does not match the 2,000-5,000 dollars a party commonly rakes in, but it is a steady complement.
The staff at Little Shop of Crafts acknowledges that their biggest roadblock is their lack of publicity and social media marketing initiatives, when compared to competing craft stores. “They just do a lot more PR,” said Joy, “so I guess their name is out there much more than ours so they took a lot of our business.” Little Shop of Crafts is currently working to improve their social media; they now have a Facebook page and are rolling out a Twitter page in the coming week. Despite their embrace of new media, word of mouth might still be their biggest asset.
“I would like to get a little bit more involved with the people passing by and letting them know that we are here,” said Dawn, Little Shop of Crafts Assistant Manager, “Let people know you can come in, relax, and feel like a child again.”
The spirit of Little Shop of Crafts, and the staff that keeps it alive, is not diminished by the amount of publicity a nearby craft store is getting. Neither is it diminished by how the recession has made people “scared to spend money on birthday parties,” said Joy. The staff powers on with their faces painted and smocks on, quaintly resembling the lined ceramic figurines standing at attention throughout Little Shop.
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Tammy Tibbetts: Empowering the World One Girl at a Time
Tammy Tibbetts
Lindsay Brown, STF Volunteer and Seventeen Magazine October cover girl. Photo courtesy of She’s the First
By Vivian Nunez
On a normal day you will find Tammy Tibbetts sitting at her desk with teal and magenta colored She’s the First gear, cupcake ornaments, and images of young girls from all over the world surrounding her. She is a 26-year-old former magazine editor taking on girls’ education with an organization that as Tammy said, “started as a piece of my heart, but before long became an international network of students, educators, and volunteers.”
Tammy is the President and Founder of She’s the First, an organization that started as a media campaign in 2009 and recently became a full-fledged 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization. She’s the First has grown under the attentive eye of Tammy Tibbetts, who up until this year was a full-time volunteer for her own organization. The original media campaign and ultimate vision for She’s the First grew from both Tammy’s journalism background and a life changing trip she took to Liberia.
“My vision is to use the power of storytelling to promote digital literacy and cross-cultural dialogue among youth worldwide,” said Tammy, “and use social media to create social change.”
She has used the power of social media to delve into issues that have been plaguing the world for years, creating a growing brand presence on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Many of the current volunteers and chapter members of She’s the First have found out about She’s the First through social media sites this is why, “beyond supporting girls’ education in the developing world, She’s the First also has the unique opportunity to drive involvement, leadership, and experience among students in the U.S.,” said Tammy Tibbetts. Her drive to empower girls worldwide is one of the reasons why there are now 40 She’s the First Campus Chapters in the US and more than 265 girls being sponsored to date.
Yet, Tammy said that she “didn’t just hop out of bed one day and say let me start a non-profit organization.” At age 23, all she wanted to do was bring awareness, through a PSA YouTube video, to what the lack of girls’ education really meant. A video that was influenced heavily by her experience in Liberia where she said she saw the “transformative impact an education could have on a child and the only hope of breaking the poverty cycle.” She hashed out the details of the mission statement “on a sweltering hot August evening in my Upper West Side apartment,” she said, with Christen Brandt, the current Director of International Operations. By mere coincidence the She’s the First video ended up snowballing into “a movement led by Millenials,” explained Tammy, “women declaring their ‘firsts’ in creative ways to show that with an education, we can break barriers, pay it forward, and ultimately eliminate gender disparities in the classrooms worldwide.”
She’s the First’s connection with the Millenial age group has also led Tammy to become a mentor to many girls she comes across. She does not hesitate to “take everyone under her wing…she is probably a personal mentor to hundreds of young women,” said Meaghan O’Connor, a She’s the First volunteer. “Mentoring is so rewarding,” said Tammy, “if you empower others to succeed and they in turn then pay it forward, you’ve created an incredible ripple effect that will far exceed anything you are individually capable of.”
The stance Tammy takes on mentoring is also the stance she takes in regards to girls’ education and She’s the First. “Scale of impact is very important to us at She’s the First, but at the end of the day,” said Tammy, “I think about individuals.”
Hima Tamata, one of the girls She’s the First sponsors.
Tammy has taken on the reigns to lead a movement that plans on changing girls’ education one girl at a time. “For underprivileged girls, the impact of a sponsorship is life-changing,” said Tammy Tibbetts, and “what I know for sure is that education is where all opportunity begins.” She hopes that 10 years from now “when I think of She’s the First 13th birthday party, I will tell everyone that we’ve sponsored thousands of girls around the world and that we have hundreds of chapters around the U.S..”
Hear a little about girls’ education and social media from Tammy herself: