Margie Thompson This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. ThisWeek Newspapers

   www.thisweeknews.com/thisweek. - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/31/2002   Last Visited: 10/31/2002

   A List of Wishes owner Margie Thompson, right, and operating manager Kathy Smith are opening their new gift and coffee shop in a restored house on Mill Street.
   ...
   A List of Wishes owner Margie Thompson said she has been a supporter of the project since long before she decided to open her shop there. Now, the Gahanna resident said, she feels directly attached to it.
   
   "The first thing that came to my mind was the Creekside area," said Thompson. "I have bought into this riverwalk project quietly since the time it started. I believe the Creekside and riverwalk is a great way to turn Gahanna back into a community, versus suburbs with housing developments all over."
   
   Thompson, 39, also is a special education teacher at the Eastland Career Center.
   
   The decision to open the shop, she said, is not entirely unrelated to her looming 40th birthday.
   
   "Part of it is that as a teacher, we are locked into 30 years and then we retire at the age of 51 or 52," Thompson said. "But, it got to be more of a destination than a journey, so it was time to do something I always wanted to do."
   
   Thompson said she has not yet decided if she will leave teaching. In the meantime, her sister will manage the shop.
   
   The two-story store will feature handmade gift items by about 19 artists. Downstairs, half the shop will offer commercially produced gifts and half will be dedicated to offering customers coffee and bakery items.
   
   "I'm trying to make it as diverse as possible to cater to every type of person," Thompson said. "This is a shop for normal coffee-drinking people. We are not attempting to be a fad thing. What we are attempting to be is rooted and a place where people can come and go."
   
   Thompson said she expects her initial clients to be limited to those who work in the Creekside area and can walk to the shop. In the long term, she said she expects her clientele to grow as the Creekside project does.
   
   "Regardless of whether my business makes it or not, I do believe in that project and I'm looking forward to it building up," Thompson said.
   
   What is the best way to celebrate Halloween?
   
   (Choose one answer)
   
   Trick-or-treating