New marketplace and a new location
By Josh Bootsma
LANSING, Ill. (October 2, 2020) – Both Thrivent Financial and Waters Edge Gift, Garden, & Pond Center held ribbon-cuttings this week as Thrivent moved from its former Torrence Avenue location to Ridge Road, and Waters Edge opened a new marketplace to sell items from outside vendors.
Thrivent moves to Ridge
Thrivent Financial held its open house and ribbon-cutting on Thursday, Oct. 1, and invited the public to attend. Thrivent has moved to 3546 Ridge Road, the building that also houses Molenaar Eyecare Specialists. The move gives the financial services business more visibility. Thrivent services include financial advice, investment opportunities, insurance, banking, and charitable giving opportunities. Financial advisors work from local offices to help people assess their current financial situation and plan for the future.
“It’s been a great, smooth process moving over from Torrence over to here. Wes Molenaar has been great, he’s a great landlord. I want to thank everyone involved for making the process smooth,” said Doug Horne, Financial Associate at Thrivent. Horne also thanked his Thrivent colleagues who were present at the ribbon-cutting.
Horne asked Dr. John Richy, Pastor at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lansing, to pray before the ribbon-cutting. According to the Thrivent Financial website, the nationwide business was founded in 1902 with a Christian foundation and Christian values still drive the company today.
Thrivent Financial is located at 3546 Ridge Rd. #2B and is open Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. More information about the business can be found on the Thrivent website or by calling 708-474-6015.
Waters Edge opens marketplace
At this point in the year, Waters Edge Gift, Garden, & Pond Center would usually be transitioning the area that houses its garden and pond items to a Christmas area. For the first time, however, this year the area will be home to a marketplace for local vendors.
“We do a lot of the markets out there, we take our stuff there. And because so many of them have been cancelled, we weren’t doing any markets this year and I have a couple friends that weren’t doing very many either. … So we decided to give other vendors a chance and see if that doesn’t help our business and their business. So we’re helping each other. Local helping local,” said Carolyn Scofield, owner of Waters Edge.
The marketplace houses 15 vendors, each of which has a unique series of products to sell including clothes, dog accessories, baking mixes, candles, bath items, jewelry, chocolate-covered foods, and animal parts designed to be treats for dogs.
Scofield said the vendors will be in the space through the end of December. “We’re going to see what happens to see if we want to continue this on a regular basis,” Scofield said.
Scofield said she reached out to her market community and received enough interest, both in person and on Facebook, to go forward with the marketplace. “Market people talk to market people. People that do booth space talk to each other,” she said.
The marketplace at Waters Edge is located at 18418 Wentworth Ave. and it is open during the same hours Waters Edge is open: Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Waters Edge’s Facebook page can be found here.
Ribbon-cuttings are organized and sponsored by the Lansing Area Chamber of Commerce as one of the many services they offer to Chamber members.
