Before the calendar turned to November, members of the Garden Club of Elizabethtown were busy with their creativity designing items to sell in the annual Holiday Bazaar.
Using items donated to the club, members paired new and like-new craft items, repurposing some to make new trees, wreaths, centerpieces, ornaments, swags and other gifts for shoppers to choose from.
“A lot of thought and work has gone into it,” President Mary Beth Marcum said of the articles.
The bazaar runs from 9 am to 4 pm Saturdays at the Brown-Pusey House in Elizabethtown.
“The great thing is otherwise some of these items would have gone to the landfill,” said club member Phyllis Dickerson. “Part of the Garden Club is being environmentally friendly, so as much as possible we try to follow the three Rs – reuse, recycle and repurpose.”
Dickerson, who runs the bazaar, said about 1,000 items will be on sale for shoppers.
“Some things that were given were nice and good to go as it was,” Dickerson said. “There is a certain Department 56 that people have donated, that collectors knew are beautiful and were expensive originally.”
Primarily Christmas items will be on sale, but some fall and Thanksgiving items will be available.
The best part about the bazaar is that the items are affordable, Dickerson said.
“The prices are marked up to sell because the pieces have been donated and reworked,” Dickerson said. “We want people to be able to afford nice things at Christmas time or that they can find gifts for others. There will be some white elephant type items and some nice things to decorate the front door, a wide assortment and styles”.
The price of the items is something that shoppers at previous bazaars have taken advantage of, Marcum said.
“Two years ago when we did it, we had someone come in and she was so excited because she had lost all her stuff in a fire,” Marcum said. “She was able to decorate her whole house because what we charge is nominal compared to what you would pay in a store.”
The club uses proceeds to maintain and improve a variety of projects throughout the city to include a pollinator and healing garden at Freeman Lake Park and to pay for a variety of children’s programs at the Hardin County Public Library.
“We try to get involved in the community,” Dickerson said. “We hope that when people come to the bazaar, they will also learn about the garden club. It’s definitely a fundraiser, but we hope to raise awareness of the Garden Club and the things we do.”
The meetings of the club, which are the first Thursday of the month, are open to the public without charge, if the residents have an interest in listening to their speakers who have from the state beekeepers to an expert of native plants.
“We’re 50 years old,” said President Mary Beth Marcum. “It was established by women who lived at home who were concerned about making beautiful things and want to beautify the city. Young people seem to be more interested in environmental concerns.”
The club is now a marriage of the two, Marcum said.
“We still have beauty projects, but we’re trying to educate and we also have a great youth program,” he said. “The interest has changed, but the whole point was to preserve what we have, use what we have and make beautiful things.”
