Coral Bay’s newest retail store is going in an unusual direction. It doesn’t want to make a profit. New 2 U is stuffed with everything from men’s, women’s and children’s clothing (including impossible-to-find brands on St. John like Liz Claiborne and Old Navy) to household items to decorative things and even paint. And all of the inventory is donated by the community.
New 2 U’s business model is simple. Sell these donated things for 10 percent to 15 percent of what they’d cost elsewhere, and operate as a nonprofit that trains local kids in retail, bookkeeping and finance. It will eventually also help victims of domestic violence.
“I have spent the last 15 years as a very active local victim advocate, and I believe changes have to start from within the community,” says store owner Iris Kern, who, after an ugly parting-of-the-ways with St. John’s domestic violence program, The Safety Zone, was recently appointed by the Governor as a special advisor to police and the Justice Department on domestic violence issues in the territory. “My experience on St. John is that if the community knows you’re willing to give as much as you’re willing to take, they respond positively.”
The store is in what used to be a little grocer across the street from Island Blues, and just got itself a spiffy new orange paint job, including a cool, Trompe L’Oeil-like mural painted by her husband. New 2 U opened Sunday and will be open Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Aaron Willis, the son of the original Fish Trap owners, plans to reopen the Cruz Bay restaurant June 3. Aaron says he hopes to keep the Fish Trap open during the summer and fall months, and will bring back the restaurant’s popular fish market. Restaurant hours: 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Fish market hours: 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
This is a very special, limited edition t-shirt from On-StJohn.com in memory of Low Key Watersports mascot Tigger, who died May 1. All net proceeds from your t-shirt purchase will go to the St. John Animal Care Center. We sold some of these at Wagaplooza Saturday.
The shirt has the ACC logo on the front, and a great image of Tigger on the back.
We have priced this shirt high ($40.00), because it’s a fundraiser for the ACC. Consider it a really cool t-shirt in exchange for your generous donation.
This shirt comes in LARGE only, and in GRAY only. Limited quantity. Please allow TWO WEEKS for delivery. Order your limited edition Tigger T, here!
One of the highlights at Saturday’s Wagapalooza was a $500 contribution to the Animal Care Center from Low Key Watersports’ Ann Marie, who made the donation in honor of her best friend Tigger.
See that pooch she’s with? That’s Cooper. (Named after one of her favorite islands.)
Ann Marie brought Cooper into the family about a year ago. Cooper is sporting a Tigger-like mohawk, pink for this occasion, and he is gunning for the job of new Low Key mascot.
As cute as he is, Cooper can’t replace Tigger, but – should Ann Marie decide he’s got what it takes – he’s got the job as far as we’re concerned.
Peter Bay residents Andy and Joy Stillman woke up to a 200 pound turtle in the pool at their beachfront villa one morning this week. They figure she came on the beach to lay eggs, maybe got confused by the big swells, and somehow ended up taking a dip in their saltwater pool.
But that’s only half the story.
Peter Bay neighbors, using a tarp, helped get her out of the pool and back to the beach. Where she happily swam away. Joy tells us the turtle was calm and not at all distressed. (Of course she was relaxed! She was in a salt water pool in Peter Bay! They should have just brought her a daiquiri.)
The happy but hungry volunteers celebrated with hearty turtle egg omelets. (Kidding.)
If you’re thinking about griping about development, put a sock in it. This is just a Jeep ride.
We thought they were just putting in roads out there. We had no idea how much extensive (that means expensive) stonework was going in too. And lots of landscaping too.
And – in an unheard of Jeep Cam move – we stop to take a look at something that made us say “wow.” Finding the path to the beach is definitely no longer a challenge.
If you surf the St. John sites, you may have seen this video by now, posted originally on the usvi-on-line.com forum by the artist, Gene. Gene and partner Eileen (pictured here at a recent Beach Bar party) have a great new little house in Coral Bay called Blue Caribe, which they put their heart and soul into building.
Gene will strum away on his porch whether anyone is listening or not, and he just posted this original song on YouTube along with a St. John slide show.
We, being the Colonel Parker of St. John, are trying to talk him into giving us a half dozen clean tracks and putting together a CD. We think he might go for it. Anybody want to encourage him? (“I would buy one” would be a very good response.)
Here’s a good place to pull over and check out St. John’s most-famous property. Not a bad little stop. And just think, Caneel Bay has a half dozen beaches just as pretty as this one.
Since this month is the sixth anniversary of when word of a traffic roundabout was first reported, we thought we’d update our photo archive with the latest picture of the old Texaco. The picture looks a lot like the ones we’ve been taking since shortly after the gas station closed about a year ago. Construction begins this summer? Maybe.
We didn’t let you spend enough time here on our recent Reef Bay Coastal Hike.
If you say “Petroglyphs,” it is like invoking this mysterious, spiritual word. Truth is the Cruz Bay post office is more mysterious than this place, and the Petroglyphs themselves are actually just a couple of smallish, well-worn carvings. Still, it’s a pretty cool little spot and well worth the hike. Very peaceful. If you’re lucky, you’ll be the only one there.
Be the only one there for a couple of minutes, below…
Set your alarm. Or set your TiVo. Island celebrity (I think he may kind of hate us calling him that) Homer Hickam is on Good Morning America tomorrow. Turns out he’s one of the Seven New Wonders of America. Well, at least the Saturn V rocket that he helped design.
Homer, a best-selling author, and his wife split their time between Alabama and their home in Upper Carolina.
In case you missed it, you can read our January interview with Homer, here.
(Homer, 1986, ready for the neutral buoyancy simulator.)
The Tap Room boys are adding Massachusetts to their list of stateside distribution and Kevin and Cheech are heading to Boston to kick it off. They’re making a personal appearance in Cambridge at The Cambridge Commons in Harvard Square, where Tropical Mango Pale Ale and Island Summer Ale will be on draft. Cambridge Commons is well known for its beers on tap — 30 of them! – and calls itself “the first spot in New England to introduce the latest and greatest microbrews.”
That’s a tough audience, and getting in the door at a place like this is a pretty big deal for Kevin and Cheech. You should tell them so next time you see them.
If you’re in Boston, mark your calendar. They’ll be there Thursday, May 22nd starting at 6 p.m.
This is the fourth state Kevin and Cheech have cracked. They also have distribution deals in California, Rhode Island and New Jersey.
