Library to host handmade craft show this weekend

A bear of a deal - Friends of the Morinville Public Library member Nikki Chevrier holds a hand-crafted teddy bear made of real fur. The attractive bruin comes encased in glass and is being raffled off at $2 per ticket to raise funds for the library. Tickets will be available at the 100 per cent hand-made Christmas Craft Sale this weekend. - Stephen Dafoe Photo.

By MorinvilleNews.com Staff

Morinville – This weekend’s Light up the Night Christmas Festival will have an old fashioned flavour to it. But carols in the park are just part of that feeling. The Morinville Public Library will be taking over the Morinville Community High School gymnasium to host their annual Christmas Craft Sale, this year exclusive to vendors who sell handmade products.

Librarian Cheryl Pasechnik said the annual craft show and sale is important to the Morinville Public Library’s fundraising efforts. “It’s our major fundraiser for the whole year,” she said. “It just helps supporting the library in extras that we need.” Although those extras can include extra books and other items, the fundraiser is particularly critical this year with the library facing a move into bigger facilities once the Civic Plaza renovations are completed in March of 2012. “We have to buy extra furniture that isn’t covered,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff we can’t use again because it’s old and it’s broken, and we need the monies to go towards the additional furniture because the renovations don’t include the additional shelves.”

Pasechnik said vendor fees from the 59 vendors participating in this year’s show will cover the cost of renting the school and the tables; the library’s funds will be generated from the $2 admission to the show.

Once inside attendees will see a large selection of homemade crafts and gift items. “This year is the first year we are 100 per cent handmade,” Pasechnik said. “There will be no businesses where people buy and resell. This is all 100 per cent handmade [items] from this area and surrounding areas. It’ll be like a good old fashioned craft sale.” Pasechnik said a wide variety of vendors have been lined up with items including crocheted and knit items, quilters, woodworking, jewellery, floral arrangements and Christmas decorations.

The library will be getting into the handmade spirit of things with their own booth and additional fundraiser. This year the library board has taken on a fundraiser whereby patrons and library supporters who make a $100 donation to the library renovation project will have a book created with their name on the jacket. These books will be displayed in a special area of the library after opening. Additionally, each donor will have their name engraved in a bronze book as a more permanent display of the community coming together to reopen the expanded Morinville Public Library.

The Christmas Craft Sale takes place Nov. 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Morinville Community High School gymnasium. Admission is $2. Children under 12 are admitted free.

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