Shoppers who want homemade crafts for a unique holiday gift or tasty baked goods to enjoy during the cooler days of fall will likely find what they want at the George G. Blaisdell Elementary School PTO Fall Vendor and Craft Fair on Saturday.
The event starts bright and early at 8 a.m. and continues through 2 p.m. in the ground-level hallway, cafeteria and gymnasium of the school on Constitution Avenue.
School Principal Erin Waugaman said the fourth-annual event will feature the wares and goods of approximately 50 vendors from the area. Sloppy Joe sandwiches, meatball subs, popcorn and beverages will be sold by a teacher from School Street Elementary School who plans to sell the items as a cancer fundraiser. Parents and teachers with the PTO will also volunteer their time at the event.
“They can start getting ready for Christmas by buying their first Christmas items,” Waugaman said of community shoppers. “In the past there had been other vendor fairs, and people just hopped from one to the other.”
She noted she hasn’t heard of other craft fairs of similar size in the Bradford area over the weekend. Therefore, this year’s event at the school, which has lots of room for vehicles in the large parking lot, is hoped to draw in plenty of people.
“We really haven’t made a lot of money from this (in the past), but it is a fundraiser for us,” Waugaman admitted. Money raised from the event, which has been approximately $500 in the past, is used to purchase a variety of items for students at the school, who are enrolled in pre-kindergarten through second grade classes.
“We use it for treats for the kids during Read Across America Day or around Christmas we give them a treat,” Waugaman said of the funds. She said the money is also used for other student-related needs. Waugaman noted funds are primarily raised through the rentals of tables to vendors.
“The vendors (rent) a table and they also donate an item which we use as a raffle” item, she explained.
Tina Clouser, president of the PTO and organizer of the event, said some of the same vendors will return again this year to sell Tupperware,Thirty-One, Avon and the LulaRoe products, among others. She said several new vendors will also make their first appearance at the event.
“I just had a lady call me a couple of hours ago (on Thursday) … she and her husband make handmade ornaments and stuff,” Clouser said. “I also will have a new lady who will sell 18-inch clothes for American Girl dolls.”
She said several vendors from the Farmers Market in Bradford will also be at the event selling baked and canned goods such as jams, jellies, pickles and relishes
In addition to wood crafts, there will also be handmade soaps, balms, body butters, Perfectly Posh bath and body items, Parklane jewelry, quilts, hand-spun yarn bags and heating pads. Gold Canyon candles and wreaths are some of the other items that will be sold, she added.
