By John Rohlf, The Message assistant editor
With an identified need in the local Newburgh area, Amelia and Michael Blankenberger recently opened Cana Collective, a Catholic gift shop.
Cana Collective, located at 117 Plum St. in Newburgh, launched a soft opening of the store in August and “really kind of opened in September,” Michael Blankenberger said. He said his wife, Amelia, realized they had a perfect location to open a Catholic store and fill a need.
When they first moved into the building with their other business, My Memories in Bloom, it was at the forefront of her mind that it would make a great space for a Catholic gift shop, Amelia said.
“My favorite thing to do is to just give gifts to people,” she said. “I like being able to share that gift with other people. When they come in, they can give me a little background in what they’re looking for and I can go around showing this would be good for that person or this.”
Michael said they had fantastic luck early on just from word of mouth. They also have a Facebook page and a website, he noted.
“The Evansville Diocese is quite large, and there are so many people that we feel we can offer a great fit for this part of town,” he said.
Cana Collective offers hand crafted and carefully curated selection of items that reflect the beauty of the faith. From crucifixes and sacramentals to devotional art and personalized gifts, everything they offer is rooted in their desire to live out the Catholic faith.
Personalized items available at the store include a holy water bottle that can be engraved personally with the baby’s name and date of Baptism and personalized cutting boards, among many other items.
Michael said in addition to offering personalization for certain items, they also carry items in stock that they manufacture and create themselves. Amelia has an entire jewelry line that is completely handcrafted, and they also carry a full line of genuine stone rosaries hand assembled by Amelia, he said.
“It’s something we can truly personalize and create something special that you’re not going to be able to buy elsewhere,” he said.
Amelia said one of her priorities for items they select is making sure they are both high quality and affordable. There is a balance between the quality and affordability, she said. She said customers want to feel proud gifting an item to someone that will not fall apart or start chipping, but with the economy, they also do not want the item to be extremely expensive.
“Anything that I have here, it is something that I would gift myself,” she said. “That’s definitely been a priority for me in selecting everything.”
She added that for the jewelry, she made it a priority to have gold filled and sterling silver jewelry that will last.
Michael said their goal is to have a really good selection of items that are the same price they would find online. He also noted with personal items, a multi-week process with an online vendor can be a same day or next day timeline at Cana Collective.
“When you’re working with us, it’s something if we have in stock, we can personalize it and have it ready that day or the next day for you to get the gift. We’ve had people come in saying ‘I need a gift for a baptism, and it’s in Indianapolis tomorrow. What can you do?’ And we’re able to work with her right then and there, have it ready to go, and then she was on her way.”
Cana Collective’s current hours of operation are typically from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT Monday-Friday. They are also planning on opening sporadically on random Saturdays, especially through the holiday season.
“We typically post those updates on our Facebook page and website,” Michael said. “But we’re pretty much open every single day of the week Monday-Friday. Myself or my wife are here and able to work with customers.”
The Facebook page Cana Collective can be found at: http://bit.ly/3W7Su8S. Their website can be found at https://www.canacollectivegifts.com/.