During Frosty’s Craft Fair at Bayfield High School, community members can shop for the holidays while supporting nonprofits focused on cancer treatment, dance and food access.
The craft fair, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, will feature about 70 mostly local vendors with items such as high-end jewelry, antler art furnishings, mittens and soaps. The fair will also include a new Community Cares Concert. With proceeds going to nonprofits and groups, the fair is a way to catch up with friends, have fun with family and support a cause.
“It’s like a shopping mall was dropped at the high school for the day,” said Sharon Hunter, volunteer director of La Plata County Independent Youth Performing Arts and an event organizer.
Frosty’s Craft Fair draws more than 400 people each year, Hunter said. Shoppers at the free fair may munch on food and check out the silent auction, kids zone and photo scavenger hunt. Vendors at the event will give away one of their items as a door prize (drawings will start at 11:30 a.m.).
This year, community members may also attend the Community Cares Concert, an intimate one-hour performance by Wild Country Band, a local classic country and rock band. The group recently toured with Chevel Shepherd, a singer from Farmington who won “The Voice” in 2018.
The concert, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the BHS cafetorium, is first-come, first-served with limited seating and admission by donation. Proceeds from the concert will go to Mercy Cancer Center through the Mercy Health Foundation.
Frosty’s Craft Fair started as a fundraiser for the Independent Youth Performing Arts Winter Guard program, and 2019 has been a rocky year for the nonprofit, Hunter said.
Instead of sending 30 to 60 students to competitions, the organization could send only ensemble and solo teams last year. Hunter only recently learned her fiscal agent, San Juan Resource Conservation and Development Council, wasn’t closing.
“It’s been a crazy year,” Hunter said. “Now we’re going to backtrack a little bit, and see how we can resurrect our programs. ... Hopefully, we can revitalize.”
During the silent auction, attendees can choose from a variety of baskets whose proceeds go to the Winter Guard program, Independent Youth Performing Arts students who are raising money for trips, the Pine River Senior Center or families in need. The silent auction will close at 1:30 p.m.
Independent Youth Performing Arts normally raises $1,100 through the auction, which it uses to bring its choreographer to Bayfield from Rhode Island. The nonprofit plans to hold a smaller, competitive Winter Guard program in 2020 and a non-competitive program through Bayfield Parks and Recreation.
Children can join in the fun as well. Kids ages 11 to 14 can team up to scour the auditorium, outside area and cafeteria for clues during a free photo scavenger hunt at 1 p.m. – at the end, they’ll receive a Frosty “loot bag,” Hunter said.
Younger kids can jump around bouncy houses in the kids zone. The play area will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the entrance fee is either $3 per child or three nonperishable food items for the Pine River Shares annual food drive for families in the Pine River Valley.
“People make a day out of it,” Hunter said. “It’s become a really big community event.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
