How bazaar
<p>BETHANY BLITZ/Press</p><p>Marianella Baker helps a customer, Diane Tapia, choose which confection to buy at her stand at the Coeur d’Alene High School Holiday Gift Faire. Baker sold baked goods and trinkets from Peru while her mother-in -law sold crocheted animals.</p>
Holiday music and the smell of baked treats filled Coeur d’Alene on Saturday as community members gathered to enjoy each other’s company and shop at the annual bazaars.
At the Trinity Lutheran Church, the tradition dates back over 20 years. A group of woman with the church spend three days in September making Norwegian flatbread to sell, and generous people donate items for the church to sell to make money for its various projects.
Some of the money is used to buy materials for the women’s group to make quilts for underprivileged children in the community.
Paula Moore goes to church at Trinity Lutheran and tries to come to the bazaar every year she can.
“Once in a while we’ll go to another one, but we come here most years,” she said. “My husband and I used to have a shop of handcrafted goods. One year we donated some pottery to the bazaar, like mugs and oil lamps.”
Across town, the Lutheran Church of the Master was hosting its annual holiday bazaar where about 50 people lined up outside the building waiting for it to open.
Inside, hand-crafted items by church members filled the rows of tables. There was jewelery, bird houses, wooden chairs, hot pads and a variety of gift packages.
Jody Harris, a member of the team that organized the event, said the bazaar does bring in money. She said one-third of the money goes to the church, another third goes to a local charity organization and the last third goes to a national charity.
Betty Nomanson and Dianne Schumann went to the bazaar to support their friend. This is the second year in a row the two friends have attended the event.
“At our age you don’t need a lot of stuff anymore,” Schumann said. “But it’s nice to see what people make.”
Bazaars weren’t the only places to buy crafty goods in town Saturday: Coeur d’Alene High School also held its Holiday Gift and Food Faire.
Event coordinator Erin Enders said the fair expanded this year by using the school’s second gym, which allowed 200 vendors to attend. She also said there were a lot of first-time vendors.
“There are a lot of parents that just want to participate so they decide to sell some of their crafts,” she said. “I think it’s pretty awesome.”
Tina Bothwell was there selling soaps and lotions she makes out of goat’s milk on her farm in Athol. The Busy B Farm is a third-generation farm.
She said part of why she has a booth at the fair is because vendor fees help the high school.
“It’s always good to support the community because the community supports us,” Bothwell said.
Further down the aisle from Bothwell’s booth were Marianella Baker and her mother-in-law, Blanca Jordan. They were selling crochet dolls and animals that Jordan made and Peruvian cookies and brownies that Baker made.
Also at their table were leather key chains, change purses and hand-painted magnets from Peru.
“It’s a little culture from my country,” Baker said. “When I go back I buy things from the women there and bring them back here. I want to share a little bit of Peru with Idaho.”
Enders said the money raised from the high school’s craft fair will go to three things: scholarships for some of the school’s seniors, mini-grants for teachers and help fund next year’s senior class drug and alcohol-free graduation party.
“This is 26 years running and it keep getting bigger,” she said. “It’s a great fair.”
Holiday craft and gift fairs
SATURDAY, NOV. 26
• NIUU Holiday Bazaar - 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Harding Center, 411 N. 15th St., Coeur d’Alene. Homemade crafts, baked good and yard sale items. Small Business Saturday Drawing, grand prize ROW river raft trip.
SATURDAY, DEC. 3
• 33rd annual Christmas Friendship Bazaar | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., North Idaho Christian School, 251 W. Miles Ave., Hayden.
• Snowflake Faire - 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. | St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 501 Wallace Ave., Coeur d’Alene. One-of-a-kind crafts and gifts. Hot soup, homemade pie at Maggie’s Cafe starting at 11.
• Christmas Bazaar - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Post Falls Community Presbyterian Church, 417 N. William St. Lunch available at 11.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7
• Skyway PTA Holiday Bazaar - 5-7:30 p.m. | Skyway Elementary, 6621 N. Courcelles Parkway, free admission, skywaypta@hotmail.com
To have your church, school or nonprofit holiday gift fair or bazaar added to the list, email bwalker@cdapress.com