Chosen Connections Offers Pick-Me-Ups in Broad Channel

By Katie McFadden

“Everyone deserves to bloom,” said Chosen of Chosen Connections Blooming Tea & Fresh Juice Boutique. The space to grab a refreshing, healing and even blooming tea, fresh juices, sweet treats, and maybe even make connections and find healing for alcoholism, substance abuse and mental health issues, is now open in Broad Channel.

Walk into the space at 814 Cross Bay Blvd., and you’ll feel like you stepped into the Botanical Gardens, with a floral theme running throughout the space. Order a blooming tea and step into the blooming room and watch as a beautiful flower blossoms on top of your teapot or cup as the tea steeps, making for a beautiful, calming warm beverage. Or maybe pick up a banana pudding or strawberry shortcake cup, chocolate covered pretzels or cookies and take home a hibiscus and strawberry juice or blueberry iced tea. Craving fresh fruit? Chosen has that too, and even a small selection of women’s wear to browse. But beyond the sweet pick-me-ups is what Chosen can offer to help pick people up through a crisis, whether it’s by providing resources or an ear to listen.

In 2013, the owner, who goes by Chosen and originally lived in Jamaica, Queens, was walking down Jamaica Avenue with her daughter when a woman asked her for a cigarette. Chosen gave her one and the woman started crying. “I’m going to kill myself,” the woman told Chosen, sharing that she had recently lost her job, got evicted and her kids were taken away. Chosen decided to give the woman some money, advised her to go to her friend’s house, and repeatedly called and kept up with her after. “I was not gonna let her take her life,” Chosen said.

Chosen found herself in a similar circumstance 30 days later after losing her own job as a medical assistant, struggling with rent, and facing custody battles over her children. “It had to be a bad omen or something. I was going through it, but I overcame it. Only a person that was dealt with that, that dealt with it, was chosen. So, since 2013, I’ve called myself Chosen and so many things have happened since then,” Chosen said. In 2020, her challenges grew when she lost her mother during the Covid pandemic, and then five other family members, to suicide, a shooting and a car accident. But through it all, Chosen dedicated her life to service and kept moving forward for her three children, including her son who has cerebral palsy.

The death of her mother led Chosen to move to South Carolina for a while, where she worked in nursing homes and hospitals. She also spent time working at a children’s juvenile detention center. Back in New York, she works as a peer counselor and offers referral services through CORE (Community Oriented Recovery & Empowerment), offering support to those dealing with mental health and substance abuse struggles. “I kept myself busy and applied where I could help people the most. I was chosen to do this,” she said.

Chosen said for a client with alcoholism who is now facing health complications, she handed him a pocket mirror. “I told him every time you get that urge to drink, look at a picture of yourself from 20 years ago, and look in that pocket mirror. Do you see what used to be or you see right now? He said, ‘I see me right now and I’m gonna get better.’ Another guy, I helped him get a job for FedEx. Another client was suffering from depression, and I was calling him, and he wasn’t answering. I knew something was off. I went to investigate. He was maybe high or drunk and he had all the burners on in the kitchen, and he was sitting on the couch having a crisis. He could’ve blown the whole building up. I refused to leave until they turned off the gas, removed him, got a court order and placed him in a program,” she said. “My theory is just to be kind to people. Every day I’m doing something for someone, and I don’t want it no other way.”

Chosen moved back to New York about three years ago and was helping her brother find a job at a local nursing home, when she decided to call Rockaway Park home. In between helping others, Chosen holds a love for cooking and all things pretty. “I noticed we don’t have a tea shop around here and I love pastries and dainty, cute things and I wanted to open a boutique where I could combine that love for those things. A boutique that offers teas and treats and things to shop for, along with a place to offer resources,” she said. “It’s like a one stop shop. You need help with resumes? Let’s figure it out. You need a job, I’m a certified employment specialist. You need help with housing? My son works for DHS and my daughter is getting certified in real estate. You’re going through a crisis? I want you to curse, scream, whatever, get it all out. I don’t give too much advice, but I like to give people a floor.”

An opportunity to open a place where she would offer all of those things fell into her lap. “I was in Rochdale, and I saw a place for rent, and I had been calling for months, but they weren’t answering, and I went over the bridge and saw this place for rent. I called and he said you can check it out. I was praying and the opportunity came. I’m lucky,” Chosen said.

She went to work, transforming the former massage parlor on Cross Bay into a blooming oasis where people can stop by for tea and goodies to stay or go, and maybe leave with some extra help, if they need it. Chosen Connections Boutique opened on July 6.

“Tea is calming. A lot of my teas are great for your immune system or digestive system. We even have a butterfly tea that’s just beautiful. All of my juices are fresh. I just signed a contract with a vendor that gets ladies’ wear. We’ll have ladies’ cosmetics, undereye patches, candles, bath bombs, everything that makes you look good and makes you feel good,” Chosen said.

All of the food and drink items that she doesn’t sell, Chosen doesn’t let go to waste. When the shop is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Chosen is around Queens, donating items to staffers at different programs which help people like day habilitation centers. “No one gives those employees anything. It takes a special person to assist and help someone that is broken,” she said.

And when she’s in the shop, she’s making connections. “It’s been a great community. A lot of people come in and tell me a lot of personal stuff and I’m like, ‘Oh wow, now we’re connected!’ It’s about forming those connections and being kind. I’m very thankful,” Chosen said, adding that she hopes to be able to do even more. “I hope to expand and heal as many people as I can, and I want to teach people how to heal themselves.”

Chosen Connections Boutique (814 Cross Bay Blvd.) is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays, Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. For more info, call 718-717-4759.