Ronnie Adams is an unusual, kind and generous woman. For more than 20 years, she has been holding garage sales, yard sales and doing fund raisers, all to raise funds so Calvary Chapel on Route 36 in Atlantic Highlands can continue its good work of providing whatever is needed for the less fortunate in the community.
And now Ronnie has opened yet another another shop in the amazing Renaissance boutique on First Avenue that is open seven days a week with an almost rock solid guarantee of having something for everyone.
The new shop in the group of neat and individual shops inside the red door offers a combination of old, new, antique, and quirky items for sale, ranging in price from fifty cents to $300, all to benefit all the community causes the Church sponsors and includes for their donations.
There is one more item in the shop, a signed soapstone sculpture of a mother and child that goes for considerably higher, but for now is simply a talking piece in the display. The $300 item is a fascinating antique wooden dough table, complete with the top board for rolling out dough, the storage drawer for allowing the dough to rise, and a couple of smaller drawers for tools of the trade.
But in between that 50 cents, for little ornaments, and the dough table, there are shelves and tables of cards, books, newspapers, statues, holiday items, and religious items for a variety of religions, from menorah to crosses. “Every religion is important,” said Ronnie ,”so we are happy to have items for each to respect and have.”
There are the unusual as well. Including the ottoman fit for a living room or bedroom, complete with storage space within and a hidden mirror in the cover. There are kitchen appliances from antique potato mashers and wooden rolling pins to graters and sieves and dishes and pots to use with all of them. There are horseshoes for good luck, and elephants of all sizes for bookends or décor. The new ideas include jewelry and candles, and with the Christmas season just beginning, there is an accent on Santa and mangers as well.
“We all have to give back,” the philosophical Ms. Adams says, “and we all have to help one another and do for one another. Running this shop for Calvary Chapel and all it does, its wonderful pastor, and the joy it spreads, is just one small thing I can do to practice what the Bible preaches we should be about.”
Renaissance is open seven days a week from 11 a. to 5 p.m. The Calvary Chapel booth is just one of the more than dozen shops where dreams and memories can be found and purchased at bargain prices
