Fall Bazaar supports local help line

Various local vendors lined the inside of the 4-H building at the fairgrounds in Superior Saturday for the forth-annual Fall Bazaar.

From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. the local vendors sold jewelry, baked goods, knitted clothing, paintings, woodwork and other hand-made items.

Each vendor rented a table for $10 and donated a door prize. The vendor’s support went to the Mineral County Help Line, which sponsored the bazaar.

Since 2007, the Mineral County Help Line has put on the annual bazaar in October. The bazaar is the only fundraiser the help line does each year besides the fair and car show, which the help line missed this year from being busy helping those in need.

The Mineral County Help Line is a 24-hour crisis line that provides help for people in crisis with an emphasis being on women who are victims of domestic and sexual violence.

The help line offers emergency housing, support, peer counseling, advocacy, support groups, education, information and referrals. The numbers for the help line are 822-4202 and 1-866-794-2100.

About ten women work for the help line and take shifts to be on call 24-hours a day. Each help line worker takes training classes every year. The help line is completely confidential and the goal is to get a person in need to a better place.

If no resolution can be found in the county, the help line is prepared to bring a person in need to Pathways in Missoula.

Before entering the bazaar, a sign taped to a wooden cutout of a person read, “October is domestic violence month”. Under the sign was a list of confirmed domestic violence related deaths in Montana from 1979 to 1999 and intimate partner homicides from 2000 to present. About 100 names filled the lists.

Most of the deaths were homicides, some were children and one was caused from a hired killer. What the help line wants people to understand is that domestic violence is real.

While the focus of the bazaar was to support the help line, some vendors took the opportunity to help others in need.

Jordan Notti sat by his table of brownies, muffins and other baked goods. A sign on his table explained that 50 percent of his earnings would go towards AniMeals.

One of the most eye-catching vendors was Sue Hummel, who sat by her table full of original paintings she has made over the years.

Hummel’s paintings depicted horses and had Western themes.

Hummel said she took up painting when she moved to Montana. She said a retired man in Thompson Falls taught class and it was the best instruction she ever received.

Now she works on mostly oil paintings in a shop in the old school house.