In the News

Thursday, April 7, 2005

Consignment event hosted at Hobbs House

The Wenham Village Improvement Society, which recently emptied the Hobbs House of its fashion shop with the leasing of space to Irresistibles at the Wenham Tea House, has filled the vacant rooms on a short-term temporary basis.

Stacey Lai and Sarah Holch, both of Manchester-by-the Sea, have rented the Hobbs House for their Children's Drop & Shop, a 12-day children's clothing consignment event.

For the first five days, from March 30 to April 3, the women welcomed drop-offs of good-condition spring and summer clothing for children from birth to 16. Some maternity wear has also been received. The items will be on sale for five days, until Sunday, April 10.

"It's five days of drop and five days of shop," said Lai, who started the appropriately named business with Holch just a couple of years ago. "This is a new company. We'll do this kind of event twice a year, in different locations, but this is our first time in this area."

Lai and Holch have invited some 500 families to participate in the consignment event. Lai said more than 150 pre-registered and, as of last Thursday, they had collected an average of 125 articles of clothing per family.

Ten percent of the profits, according to Lai, are donated to the Melanoma Education Foundation, a Peabody-based nonprofit organization that highlights the importance of monthly self-examination of the skin, especially among adolescents and young adults, to detect the skin cancer while it is curable. Holch has suffered personally from melanoma and is a volunteer for the MEF.

The Children's Drop and Shop will be open at the Hobbs House Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Saturday, April 9, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, April 10, from noon until 5 p.m.

For information, visit childrensdropandshop.com online.