Christian Retailing

Christian Store Day funds Haiti relief Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Thursday, 02 December 2010 03:22 PM America/New_York
The first national Christian Store Day has raised more than $60,000 for Haiti relief efforts to ministries working in the earthquake-devastated country, which has also seen a cholera outbreak.

With a tag line of "celebrate faith and community," Christian Store Day was held Oct. 23 with the goal of enthusing existing Christian retail consumers, drawing back former customers and attracting new shoppers.

The day also spotlighted a benefit $5 CD—with songs from artists such as Newsboys and TobyMac—which raised money for Compassion International, Samaritan's Purse and World Vision efforts in Haiti. More than 10,000 copies of the CD were purchased by retailers, CBA said.

"We deeply appreciate the timely donation of funds that were raised to aid the Haiti rebuilding effort and to combat the cholera outbreak," said Mary Hogan, retail project associate at World Vision.

CBA Executive Director Curtis Riskey said Christian Store Day was "an opportunity to demonstrate the power of ministry and the impact of working together."

Backed by CBA, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association and the Christian Music Trade Association, the inaugural event was sponsored by Tyndale House Publishers, Thomas Nelson and Zondervan. They and music distributors such as Word Distribution, EMI CMG Distribution and Provident-Integrity Distribution provided giveaways and specials for the day—which also saw a wide range of in-store appearances by authors and artists.