Craft fair provides local post-Thanksgiving shopping

ALBERTON – Black Friday will be coming to Mineral County the Saturday after Thanksgiving during a craft fair in Alberton.

Saturday, November 30, the lunchroom of Alberton Elementary School will be filled with vendors from around the community selling their wares. Items sold will include Christmas decorations, clothing, cosmetics and handcrafted art.

Though the craft fair is an annual event, this will be the first year the food pantry has held it.

According to Murial Mead, the contact for the event, the fair’s previous organizer, Risa Briscoe, became too busy to continue and could no longer dedicate the time to it. However, she said Briscoe would help with the event as much as she could.

According to Mead, people come from all over central-eastern Mineral County to support the food pantry. She said in the past, people have come from as far as Frenchtown to hold a table at the fair.

Vendors were charged $15 for table space and will donate everything made. All proceeds of sales will be donated to the Alberton Food Pantry, though some money will cover expenses. Public admission will be free.

“The only ones that are paying anything are the [vendors] for the tables,” Mead said.

According to Mead, past years have seen good turnouts. While there are other bazaars and sales elsewhere in the community, around the same time, the events do not compete with each other and instead try to boost business to the others.

Visitors to one event will be given a punch card which can be taken to another location and punched again. If the card is filled, the holder will be entered for a chance to win a prize.

“The bakery will sometimes be on the punch card, and the antiques store,” said Mead. “It’s a good way to bring in a little business.”

Prizes are donated by the vendors and usually consist of the same items to be sold. According to Mead, past prizes have included clothing, crafts, baked goods and similar items. She said most of the prizes make good gifts for the holiday season. There will also be a quilt raffled off at the event.

Mead estimated there would be approximately 15 vendors at the event. At the time of the interview, most of the spaces had been filled. Anyone who would like to be a volunteer should contact Mead by calling 722-4405.

There will be donation boxes set up in case visitors would like to donate to the food pantry. According to Mead, the pantry usually goes through peanut butter and rice quickly, though any donations are appreciated as shortages of specific items can vary.

Food will be available at the event, provided by the food pantry. Meals will consist of a selection of homemade soups, cookies, rolls and drinks.

The fair will be held in the cafeteria of Alberton Elementary School on Saturday, November 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.