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Hi and thank you for visiting our Web Site! We are Rich and Roseann
Para, owners of the Ben Franklin store in downtown Sycamore, IL.
We are the 3rd owners of this 77 year old Ben Franklin store.
We began our journey in Sycamore back in 1993. We had just sold
our Florist in Wheaton, IL and decided to go west! We opened Sweet
Earth Jewelry Company and Flower Market just down the street from
our current Ben Franklin location. There we focused on beads, jewelry,
jewelry making and jewelry repair. We continued our love of flowers
by adding a fresh “cash n carry” European style flower
market.
Business grew and in a short time, Sweet Earth needed more space. By chance in 1995 the previous owner of the Ben Franklin store
happened to be in our store and mentioned that he was going to
be selling the Ben Franklin and asked if we were interested.
After much thought Roseann and I decided the time was right and
found that we could incorporate our love for jewelry and creating
into this new venue. So our Ben Franklin journey began!
We love the small town atmosphere in Sycamore. It’s hard
to believe there’s a place as nice as this. We believe and
take pride in being able to give our customers the special attention
they deserve. We take great pleasure in being able to provide the
many services: jewelry repair, jewelry design, special ordering,
gift and jewelry engraving to our customers and community.
Rich a GIA Graduate Gemologist has been working with jewelry since
high school. He has over 10 year’s jewelry repair experience
as a bench jeweler. He also is a florist, who owned with Roseann
a successful floral business in Wheaton, IL for over 10 years.
Roseann has a degree in business economics and has recently been
certified as a computerized signature engraver. We have been married
over 21 years and have worked together for about 20 years. We love
it!
Stop in and visit our Ben Franklin store. We are very proud of
it The store has changed over the years and is now more of a specialty
store than a craft store, although we still stock scissors, construction
paper and glue. We try to carry the items the big box stores don’t.
We are here on a daily basis and talk to our customers about what
they want.
We are best known for our beads, unique jewelry and computerized
engraving. But we do keep many of the old Ben Franklin favorites
around like: candy, flour sack towels and embroidered hankies.
It is this mixture of new and old that keeps our customers happy,
near and far. We are worth the trip!
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