By EILEEN SCHULTE
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 18, 1999
On the day the Mustard Seed Thrift Store moved to its new location, there was a parade.
The parade was part of the city festival Oldsmar Days, and while the city celebrated, the downtrodden and the bargain-hungry shopped in the freshly painted store at Washington Square Plaza on Tampa Road.
The Mustard Seed is a place where people without permanent addresses browse with people who make their homes in Presidents Landing or East Lake Woodlands. Shoppers may just as easily drive up in a Lexus or arrive on a bus.
One thing is certain: In its new, more visible location, the store made more money that day than it usually did in a week at an old, poorly heated house on the grounds of Community Methodist Church in Oldsmar.
The church will need the money. The overhead at Washington Square is $1,600 a month, according to the Rev. Sharon Patch, pastor of Community Methodist.
That's a lot of money to make each month when you consider the store makes its money a quarter at a time.
Consider these prices written on the tags: 25 cents for a pair of baby's green and blue plaid overalls; 75 cents for a brown teddy bear wearing a red and white polka dot ribbon around his neck; 50 cents for a glittering plastic beaded necklace; and 25 cents for a copy of Life's Little Instruction Book.
The store moved into what was a vacant former beauty shop in Washington Square because a new sanctuary is being built on the site of the old store five blocks away. Ground will be broken for the church in a few months.
The Mustard Seed is open six days a week and its hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
When the store was moved, the Oldsmar Flea Market donated merchandise to help fill its racks. But most items that are for sale are donated by members of the church.
On a recent Tuesday, two church members who are also volunteers, Alice Manny and Marion Swigert, were manning the store when Patch breezed in, smiling, just to say hello.
"How are things going? Any sales today?" Patch asked them.
"You got a $2 sale here," yelled Susan Hill, who was looking at a garment.
Hill is being helped by the church. She was working at the store scraping old adhesive off the front window with a razor.
Other than Hill's $2, the store had made about $50 in sales that morning. The take was better than the day before when the store took in $3 and spent $7 on razor blades to scrape the adhesive.
Hill said she moved to Oldsmar from Fort Lauderdale five months ago to escape an abusive husband, and once here, fell on harder luck: She was involved in an auto accident and took a tumble down a flight of stairs. As a result of those accidents, her back, both arms and a leg are braced.
She and two of her children live with a friend in one room near the church. Meanwhile, Patch is trying to help her find a place of her own.
"Sharon is such a good minister," said Hill. "She explains things so well, why things change. She's an excellent teacher."
Hill's friend, Terry Klein, 43, who hadn't gone to his regular job that day, was helping with the manual labor around the store. He has been a member of the church for two years. Recently, the church has been "helping me get my faith back," he said, after his wife left him and went to live in Boston with his two daughters.
Swigert and Manny made themselves busy by straightening clothes on the racks while they waited for customers. They say only a third of their inventory is out on the floor. The rest is in the back and will be put out as more items are sold.
And anything the store can't sell is trucked to Dover, where it is given to migrant farm workers.
Patch has led the 400-member church for six years. She moved to Florida from West Virginia about 30 years ago and has four grown children and several grandchildren. She loves babies and says, "The greatest thing I do is baptize babies."
Her husband, Jim, writes computer software programs at home and is active in the church, especially in the drama program.
Patch also heads a program called Oldsmar Cares. Four area churches sponsor Oldsmar Cares, which helps low-income people pay their utility bills and operates a food pantry out of the church.
"Apartment (managers) refer people to us who are having a difficult time," she said. "Many are hourly employees who fall behind."
From time to time, street people are referred to Oldsmar Cares. They receive emergency help, which consists of four or five outfits, food and a place to stay temporarily.
Some people, the repeat customers, are on food stamps, which never seem to get them through the month. But Patch doesn't turn them away, explaining they "chronically make bad decisions, but you do the best you can" to help them.
Churches, she said, attract people who are having difficulties.
Hill said it best: "I saw that church and that was home."
As for the store, Patch said the reason it was founded about seven years ago was to help with the church's finances.
"But it's grown beyond that," she said.
This year, the Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce separated its Business of the Year Award into two divisions: medium-sized businesses with a yearly gross of $2-million to $5-million, and small businesses with an annual take of $2-million or less
The two winners were named during the Greater Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon at Tampa Bay Downs on April 14.
LM Office Supply and Furniture was the winner in the medium-sized business division, and David L. Wallace & Associates, P.A., an architecture firm, won small Business of the Year.
"It's an honor. We're very proud of it," said Michael Pusatera, president of LM Office Supply and Furniture.
Pusatera has been a member of the chamber since he relocated his 15-employee business from Clearwater in 1984.
The chamber's printing needs are fulfilled by LM Office Supply. Kevin Gartland, the chamber's executive director, told the luncheon crowd the company is so reliable that when the chamber orders materials, they are delivered the same day or are on the doorstep waiting for employees when they arrive for work the next morning.
David Wallace Sr. gives his employees a half-day off on Fridays and gives them 10 days off at Christmas, prompting high employee morale and very low turnover. For that reason, and the fact the hotel design company landed nine major design projects in its first year in Oldsmar, the company was chosen to be honored.
"I was absolutely dumbfounded," Wallace said. "I went to the lunch yesterday hoping to win and when I did, I was floored. It's the first time I've won anything like this."
Wallace credits his son and business partner, David Wallace Jr., with filling out the contest application.
Wallace Sr. closed his Memphis office last year to concentrate on business in the Tampa Bay area. The company, which has about 25 employees, completes about 35 projects each year.
"I love it here," Wallace Sr. said. "I live on Tampa Bay. I fish, I love the outdoors. You couldn't get me out of here with dynamite."
He is also active in the chamber and is chairing the Oktoberfest celebration for the second year in a row.
Last year's Oldsmar Business of the Year, BF Goodrich Aerospace Lighting Systems Division, went on to win the Upper Pinellas Business of the Year.
"We'll see if we can't carry the trophy away two years in a row," said Gartland.
Five notable guest storytellers read stories to a group of children, parents and even grandparents during a National Library Week event at the Oldsmar Public Library on April 12
Dave Schmitt, principal of Oldsmar Elementary School, read the thriller Principal from the Black Lagoon; Greg Walker, principal of Forest Lakes Elementary, entertained with Song and Dance Man; Jeff Sandler, mayor of Oldsmar, read the True Story of the Three Little Pigs; Jerry Beverland, former mayor of Oldsmar, read A Huge Harold, and Scott McGuff, Oldsmar fire chief, read Curious George.
"It went very well," said children's librarian Bert Weber.
The children also took part in a contest to name the three large, red armadillos designed into the new carpet in the library's children's room. The three winning names?
Andy, Arnie and Dillon.
The children who picked the names each won a book about armadillos.
So, you've outgrown your car and you are thinking about buying a new one
Which do you choose? A sports car? A convertible?
The Noon Optimist Club of Oldsmar can help you learn to keep emotion out of the decision.
At their luncheon on Thursday, the program will be "Buying a New or Used Car."
You'll learn which questions to ask the dealer, and how to tell if the used car you may be considering has been abused or in a wreck.
The luncheon will be at noon in the private dining room of the Hillstown Diner II at the Countyline Plaza on the southeast corner of Race Track Road and Hillsborough Avenue in Oldsmar.
It will cost $5.50, but consider it an investment in your new vehicle. For reservations, call Katie Kalieta at (727) 944-2674.
-- We are on the lookout for news for this Oldsmar column. If you have news, please contact Eileen Schulte at the North Pinellas Times. She can be reached by phone at (727) 445-4229, by fax at (727) 445-4206, or you may mail material to her at 34342 U.S. 19 N, Palm Harbor, FL 34684.
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