Sisters help others preserve memories

BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

Above, Sue Selover (l-r) and her sister Chris Kent-Scharma help a customer design a scrapbook at their new store, Scrapper’s Cove. At left, one wall of Scrapper’s Cove displaying items customers can use to create their own scrapbook. MILLTOWN –– In planning for their own future, sisters Sue Selover and Chris Kent-Scharma hope to help their customers rediscover their past.

Selover and Kent-Scharma have opened Scrapper’s Cove, where customers can make scrapbooks and cards, and organize their family’s own photo history.

“Some people have that box of photos of their mom, dad, grandmother, and they don’t even know who was in the pictures, where they were or when it was,” Selover said.

The store offers scrapbook-making classes as well.

“We want to show people how to preserve their memories and pass them down, so that when they’re not here, the memories do live on,” Selover said.

Selover has lived in the borough for 15 years, and her husband is a lifelong resident.

PHOTOS BYSCOTT PILLING staff Six years ago, Selover’s friends taught her the scrapbook-making skill, and she immediately realized she had both an appreciation and a talent for it, and has been making her own scrapbooks ever since.

“I have scrapbooks for holidays and for travel, and both my children are involved in scouting, so they each have their own Scout album and they each have their own baby album,” Selover said.

Kent-Scharma has had more than a passing interest in the craft as well, since she was in charge of her college sorority’s scrapbook.

It had often been suggested that the two should parlay their hobby into a career, and when 75 Main St. became available, they were able to make it happen.

“We’ve both been doing it for a while and we just absolutely love it,” Selover said. “And so many people have looked at things like that over the years and said, ‘You should do something with this.’ And the opportunity presented itself and we did.”

The grand opening of Scrapper’s Cove took place Feb. 4 and 5, and though the shop — and in many cases its concept — is new to area residents, Selover said the community has shown great interest.

Customers who are familiar with scrapbooks have complimented Selover and Kent-Scharma on the size of the store and its impressive selection of supplies.

But those who have not worked with scrapbooks in the past are not afraid to explore the shop or ask questions, Selover said.

And since the classroom is in the back of the store, she added, the Cove’s students are not distracted by the shoppers.

The classes, which are offered to both beginners and advanced “scrappers,” are a significant part of the shop, Selover said.

She said that although it is nice for her and her sister to take part in someone’s efforts to preserve their memories, it is especially meaningful when students learn to create their own scrapbook.

“It’s more important to me that they feel a sense of accomplishment,” Selover said. “I’d like to teach them so that I can supply them the products, but then they feel the sense of accomplishment themselves. I don’t want them to feel like somebody else did it for them.”

By the customer making the scrapbook, Selover said, it strengthens the personal connection that that family will have with the book.

Selover said that it is a common occurrence for families to find a shoe box full of photographs from a previous generation, and not recognize many of the faces in the pictures.

“By having a scrapbook, future generations will always know who those people were, why they were together, when it was,” Selover said.

She said that she had that experience before she started making her own scrapbooks, and that customers will find satisfaction and confidence in being able to help their children accurately navigate the family’s pictorial history.

“This way, they’ll always know,” Selover said.

Scrapper’s Cove, 75 Main St., is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m.