www.roanoke.com

lindsey.wray@roanoke.com 777-3521

The giant red scissors may not have actually cut the white ribbon at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but the American Cancer Society's new Discovery Shop is open for business.

The store, which opened Sept. 22 in Moneta, is a sister store of the Discovery Shop on Franklin Road in Roanoke. While the Roanoke location has mostly clothing, the new store - referred to as the Discovery Shop at Smith Mountain Lake - will carry primarily furniture and household items.

After doors opened last week, shoppers flocked to the store. Volunteers quickly attached red-and-white "SOLD" signs to larger furniture as cashiers hurriedly rang up items that customers standing in a long line were waiting to purchase.

Proceeds from Discovery Shop sales fund American Cancer Society programs and cancer research. The Roanoke store has made $2.5 million since it opened nine years ago. Aside from raising money, the stores also make the cancer society visible to the public and encourage people to learn about the organization, said Daphne DePuy, executive director of the cancer society's western Virginia region.

Ann Shelton and Betty Lesko, two of the Roanoke Discovery Shop founders, said they hope the new store appeals to people who live in the Smith Mountain Lake area. Because people who move to the lake sometimes bring things they end up not having space for or need things they don't have, Shelton and Lesko expect the store to be popular and have a steady flow of new merchandise.

Volunteers spent the past month setting up the shop, which accepted its first donations nearly a year ago, Lesko said. Besides furniture, items in the store on opening day included books, photo frames, pottery, golf clubs, puzzles and a Noah's Ark music box. The shop also has a "Back Porch" room for outdoor furniture.

Katherine Hartsel was one of the first customers to browse the store Sept. 22. Hartsel, of Hardy, eventually picked up a fireplace bellows to buy. She said she has shopped at the Roanoke store before and is glad to have one at Smith Mountain Lake so she can help support the cancer society.

Running the Discovery Shop is "a real team effort," Shelton said, because it takes shoppers, donors and volunteers to keep it going. Volunteers are especially important, DePuy said, because the time they spend at the shops raises the money that leads to more research and higher cure rates.

DePuy is confident that fund-raising efforts such as the Discovery Shops put researchers closer to finding a cure for the disease.

"We will not stop until we reach 100 percent [cure rate]" she said. "That is our goal."

The new Discovery Shop is at 400 Scruggs Road, Suite 500 in Lakewood Professional Center in Moneta. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call 721-0050. To learn more about the American Cancer Society, call (800) ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.