If you’ve been driving past 122 S. Patrick St. lately, you may have noticed a new store whose black signage with white and red lettering boldly calls itself The BEST Gift Shop. Once you find out the amazing story behind it, you will find that the claim is not that daring after all.
BEST stands for “Building Employment Solutions Together” and is a cooperation between the Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund (JPMF) and ServiceSource to offer people with disabilities meaningful employment.
“This is a project that has been in progress since the prepandemic at the end of 2019. The Pizzano family and JPMF came to us with this idea for a program for adults with disabilities to walk every day, learn work skills, engage in meaningful activities that are very much in tune with many of the programs we are now running “, explained Theresa Piccolo, a senior manager for long-term and community integration services at ServiceSource. Unfortunately, the pandemic forced the program to pause until July.
The BEST program describes itself as a mobile work team of four participants and one employee eager to work with companies to meet their daily service needs. Possible services include inventory and stock keeping, shredding, assembling, copying, light cleaning (vacuuming, disinfecting, dusting), light gardening (plant watering), mailing / parcels, custom work, and disinfection / cleaning of fitness equipment.
“At the moment we are training them (program participants) in various tasks, sweeping, gardening, we are preparing them for work in the store, that is, greeting them, storing them over there, storing them in the program section, some of them are the things we do with are starting to build their skills so we can better market them after COVID, ”said Monita Garrett, program manager for the BEST program.
The BEST Gift Shop opened in September with a ribbon cutting ceremony planned for the end of October. Larrisha Leach, the store’s sales and marketing specialist, stated that the purpose of the gift shop is to “show the community what people with disabilities can do and, on the other hand, our people with disabilities, small businesses, large businesses, promote them and to give them more attention. “
The store inventory is sourced from individuals and artisans with disabilities from across the country including some local artisans such as Bloom artisans based in Oakton and Arlington Weaves, etc. Visitors to the store can purchase scarves, jewelry, soaps, candles, cards, tote bags, prints, paintings and other beautiful and unique items for sale.
Even without much advertising, members of the community became aware of the new shop. “Our glass display and BEST gift shop were eye-catching for people and they would come by and say, ‘I want to know what’s the best thing about The BEST gift shop?’ Lye described. Once they find out that the beautiful items are made by people with disabilities, they support them incredibly.
“I think it brings it home too when they find out that there is a day care facility attached to the store so they can see people with disabilities and see what they are actually doing … we don’t just sell their products, rather we “We actually advocate that they make more products,” added Garrett.
The BEST Gift Shop is located at S. Patrick St. 122 and is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.