The gift shop at Albert Lea Medical Center will be closed on Wednesday so members of the Naeve Hospital Auxiliary can create their first-ever holiday boutique.

The boutique, which replaces the holiday fair, will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in the gift shop.

The event will have longer hours than the holiday fair did. “We hope to bring people in from the community who couldn’t normally make it,” said Corrine Schultz, member of the auxiliary’s gift shop committee.

The boutique and gift shop are expanding into jackets, mittens and decorating ideas. There will be jewelry, watches, men’s items, “icy” items, boxed cards, trees, wreaths, decorated wall items, candy dishes, holiday table linens, dolls and pictures. There will be a number of new women’s accessories, including key holders, purse hangers, purses, wallets, scarves and pins.

In addition, there will also be items for entertaining, including new chiller bowls, wine corks and dips. People will be able to sample the dips.

“We’ll have lots of new items at this event, and we’ll continue to put out new items throughout the holidays,” said Sharon Jahnke, another committee member.

“We’ve been to market and there are all kinds of new things coming out,” added member Lea Nolting.

The coffee shop, located next door to the gift shop, will be open for the same hours during the boutique, and will offer Christmas cookies and hot cider as well as its regular fare during the event.

Since opening in their new locations earlier this year, both the gift shop and coffee shop have been very well received. “It’s been overwhelming,” Schultz said. “The hospital gave us two prime spots.”

“We’re grateful to the people who work here. They’re fantastic,” member Lorna South said.

The gift shop will be open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays in December.

Because the volunteer organization has been so busy with the coffee shop and gift shop, they encourage others to join them.

“We’re a fun bunch of volunteers,” Schultz said. “We’ve met new friends we never would have met any other way.”

She added that members come from different churches and different communities. They work in pairs in both the gift and coffee shops.

In addition to those two areas, auxiliary members volunteer in the Albert Lea Cancer Center, give tours to first-graders, make comfort blankets and hand-knit caps for babies, and donate combs and brushes for newborns and plush toys for children in same-day surgery.

All funds raised by the auxiliary go to fund items on the Albert Lea Medical Center’s wish list.

This includes satellite clinics.