Bazaar showcases homemade gifts

Halloween has come and gone. Thanksgiving will be looked over. So come the end of November, that leaves one month, one day until Hanukkah starts and twenty-five days until Christmas. This does not leave much time to go out and buy presents for families and friends. \nWith the holiday season just around the corner, many churches, schools and other local community service organizations are putting together sales and bazaars to benefit their causes. Last week, the Local Potters Guild put together a holiday sale of their pottery at St. Mark's United Methodist Church. This week, St. Paul's United Methodist church held their own Holiday Bazaar to benefit projects of the church. \n"The church started around 1963 and the bazaar has been going on since the start. It runs for two days and is the main project of the United Methodist Women," said Pat McCormick, one of the members of the church.\nThis past Thursday and Friday, St. Paul's offered a sale of different items. The members of the United Methodist Women put on a bazaar to benefit the church needs. These items included, old, used items that would otherwise be sold in a garage sale in a room named "Trash and Treasures", a bake sale in a room named "The Country Store", and select holiday items in a room named "Holiday Bazaar." These rooms were Sunday school rooms that had been turned into stores for anyone to come in and buy gifts, baked goods, or used items. In the kitchen, a luncheon was served on Thursday and a Turkey Dinner on Friday so as not to look over one of the most important holidays of American culture.\n"The Bazaar raises money to function different projects of the church," said Phyllis Durnal, one of the members of the United Methodist Women. "These projects include camping trips, mission trips, and many renovations of the church."\n"Other ways that the money is used is for different appliances, bibles, transportation vehicles and even some of the land. Everything at the bazaar is donated to the church by the congregation," said McCormick.\nEverything in the room was handcrafted and made especially for the bazaar. It was all made by the women of the church during their select meetings of the month, led by Katherine Haseman. \nHaseman is the president of the United Methodist Women and is in charge of putting together the bazaar, St. Paul's biggest fundraiser of the year.\n"The bazaar is something that the whole congregation gets involved in, from the workers in the kitchen, to those accepting money at the cashier tables," said Donna Carnegie, who helped set up the two meals.\nThe handmade crafts were sold anywhere from about $3 to $15. Anything from ornaments, to pins, even sweatshirts were made with fun holiday adornments on them.