Jan Grapsas has been running the Gift Givers Gallery in Werribee for nine years. She also designs a range of homewares and is a member of the Wyndham Business and Tourism Association (WBTA).
How long have you lived in Werribee?
I’ve been here since I was seven years old. When I moved here, there were 17,000 people here. It’s changed, obviously, with 250,000 people here now.
Not just the streets, but the amount of homes and shopping places – it’s unbelievable. When we went out in the old station wagon as young children, with our parents, you could get from one side of Werribee to the other in 10 minutes. Now when I go to Ballarat, I have to factor in that it takes at least half an hour to get out of Werribee.
Running your store for so long, do you have a lot of connections with the community?
I have customers who are old friends, who have been coming into the shop since I opened. They want to know how my daughter’s going, my husband, the dog, how Christmas was. I’m also involved with Relay for Life.
We have fundraising shopping nights here where girls come in and shop, and they’ve been running for the past six years. We hold about 30 fundraisers a year.
It’s good for us, but it’s also good for them, because some of the funds raised go towards the Relay for Life. I think in the time we’ve been running the fundraising nights, we’ve raised over $15,000 for the community.
We also have fundraising nights for basketball clubs, football clubs, netball clubs, schools and kindergartens. I employ three girls, plus there is me and my husband, who is here on Saturdays and tells really bad dad jokes. My daughter is here too.
It’s a family business, we’re community-minded. We want to help people with gift giving, but also help the community.
Tell me about your involvement with the Wyndham Business and Tourism Association (WBTA)?
I’m a former secretary and I’m still involved. What I enjoy, I think it’s being able to have a say on behalf of the retail community. We’re on the front line and trying to do the best we can for our customers.
We’ve got lots of ideas and we want to get things going for the area. We can see something’s not right and we can go to council and say, ‘Can you fix it?’ or we can fix it ourselves.
What do you like most about Werribee, or Wyndham?
I think what I really love about this place is that it’s fantastic to be able to do so many things. We’ve got the marina, Werribee Park, the State Rose Garden, Shadowfax, the zoo, the B-52s. The main street is gorgeous, with all the trees. All the pop-up parks are great.
There is all this stuff in the one area, but people don’t know about it. That’s what the WBTA is working to make people aware of and trying to get the government to help. The resources we have here, in one tiny place, are amazing.
Any final thoughts?
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported us through the years.
