Schools
Holiday Boutique Brings the Merry to Hampton Street School
Holiday-themed items sell out early at the school PTA fundraiser.
Black Friday came a little later this year for students who did some bargain-priced shopping at the school's annual PTA-organized Holiday Boutique Tuesday morning.
Two classes at a time were ushered into the library to shop at half-hour intervals. Due to the school's 11:30 a.m. closing time due to parent-teacher conferences on Tuesday, the tiny consumers will have the opportunity to peruse the merchandise one class at a time on Wednesday and Thursday when the boutique will be open all day. Proceeds from the long running fundraiser go toward educational enrichment programs.
Coffee mugs, stuffed animals, and jewelry flew off the shelves at a rate that would put Toys R Us on Christmas Eve to shame. These particular items had already sold out and had to be re-ordered from Prestige Fundraising Inc., the Farmingdale-based gift supplier employed by the Mineola PTA for the past couple of years. Other items included holiday stationary, water bottles, coasters, and various other nick-nacks and do-dads.
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PTA member Karyn Franz, who is running the event for the first time, saw shoppers ranging from "some coming in with $5 to spend to some coming in with $50, to some who just come to look around and buy another day." What all the buyers have in common is that "they don't want to leave with any change," said Heather Duffy, who has been helping out with the sale for the past 3 years.
Other commonalities the consumers share are the intended present-recipients, and they're not for who you might think. According to Duffy, "a lot of kids are buying for their pets this year." Also, after holiday shopping for pets and family is finished, many of the children "like to treat themselves with a little something."
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Although not brazen enough to haggle prices with the PTA, according to Duffy the students are "good shoppers who browse and ask questions." Rather than impulsively picking out the first thing that jumps out at them, they take several laps around the tables, diligently exploring their options. One super-smart shopper girl "came in with $10 and bought 10 things," Duffy said.
"It is nice that the kids don't have to spend a lot of money to buy things for their aunts, uncles, moms and dads," said Dale Oswald, who ran the boutique from 1995 to 2000. "I still have the earrings that my boys bought me."
