Fulda craft event right around the corner

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FULDA — The air is crisp, the temperature is dropping and the holidays are right around the corner. With the holidays comes the 35th annual Fulda Women of Today (WoT) Holiday Craft Bazaar, with the addition of a new Women’s Expo this year.

For all of those 35 years, the golden rule at the craft bazaar has been that all items must be handmade.

“We have earned the trust of the craft people by promising no commercial competition,” said Fulda WoT advertising chairman Brenda Wehking. “It is hard to compete between one of a kind items and a catalog.”

But local vendors of commercial ventures and home parties such as Mary Kay cosmetics and Pampered Chef have been asking if they could participate in the bazaar. To accommodate them without changing their policy on handcrafted items, the Fulda WoT opted to host the craft bazaar at the Fulda High School as usual, but will have an expo at the Fulda Legion Hall as well. Both will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.

There are about 16 vendors signed up for the expo and more than 50 signed up for the craft bazaar. In the past, more than 1,200 shoppers have walked through the doors of the high school to peruse the crafts and do some holiday shopping.

The craft booths at the school will include pottery, lawn ornaments, clothing, jewelry, stained glass and more. In the school cafeteria, there will be plenty of goodies to eat. The proceeds from the food sales go to the Fulda WoT chapter.

Over at the Legion building, shoppers will find booths for Avon, Discovery Toys, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware and a variety of other commercial ventures.

“We have tried to go with local people as much as possible,” Wehking commented. “Some have already asked for a space for next year.”

The craft bazaar got its start back in the Memorial Hall, when tables rented for $8 to $10 and lunch was a free will offering. In 1976, the bazaar was moved to the high school gymnasium to provide more space. In 1994, the Fine Arts Club passed the bazaar over to the Fulda Women of Today chapter. That same year, the bazaar expended to include the hallways of the school. The WoT group added some conveniences to the shoppers that had not been available before, such as coat check and door prizes. With the new addition of the expo, there should be something for everyone to see and enjoy.

The money raised by the WoT chapter has been used for area and state projects such as Project Linus, the Fulda Fireworks fund, the Memorial Beach project and new park equipment.

“It is quite an accomplishment,” Wehking said. “We have 16 members that do all this, and two are vendors themselves. It really shows the teamwork of our organization when we put this on.”

Tags: news, fulda, holiday, craft, bazaar, womensexpo, womenoftoday, wot