Bailey Thompson | News Editor
Walking into the Polk County Fairgrounds and Event Center, a number of local children called names for door prizes and those involved with Polk County 4-H sat at a greeting booth in the entryway. Roughly 130 vendors gathered on Nov. 2-3 for the 56th Annual Polk County Holiday Fair — a time to share homemade items and help support the local 4-H program.
Paintings, dolls, holiday decorations, wooden items, jewelry and ceramics: all things that could be found at this year’s bazaar. Along a multitude of rows sat vendors of all ages, talking with prospective customers about the products they had made.
Back at the entrance to the fair, however, event organizer Suzi Busler sat and managed several volunteers in order to make sure that the event was a success.
“We’re a holiday fair that started before Christmas bazaars were the in-thing to be,” said Busler. “About nine years ago (an extension study group program) turned it over to the 4-H program. And we’ve expanded and added quite a few things to the program since then.”
In discussing the impact that this annual event has on the local 4-H children, Busler remarked that the holiday fair is one of their biggest fundraising events — drawing close to 3000 people from the community — and it also helps the kids to grow and develop in their leadership skills.
“This is an opportunity for them to be able to market and use those skills that they’re learning in the 4H program,” said Busler.
When asked about whether or not groups of college students are able to rent booths in future years, Busler responded, “Absolutely…maybe a college student doesn’t have enough time to be able to have enough product to staff their own booth, but a collection of students could easily join together to be able to have enough products to sell.”
If any Western students or organizations are interested in being a part of the Holiday Fair next year, Busler advised that they contact the Polk County Extension Office at (971) 612-0028 after information comes out next August. It costs $40 for crafters to participate in the fair, and this money goes to funding the Polk County 4-H program.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
