Parish Fairs are Back for 2021

It might be presumptuous to say that the return of November and early December parish craft fairs, bazaars, bazaars with lunch, silent auctions and more bodes well for a post-pandemic future, however, the two events attended by my step-granddaughter, Naya and I on November 13, had most of the trappings of the annual church fall fair in place including a wide selection of items and generous cohorts of volunteers ready to help.

All Saints’, Burnaby has a tradition of seasonal commerce taking place on their property. The north side area has long been home to a Christmas Tree lot presented by Aunt Leah’s Place, a compassionate service organization dedicated to helping prevent children in foster care from becoming homeless and mothers in need from losing custody of their children. On November 13, the signage for the lot was in place but too early for any trees. As with many parish fairs, the “Gift Basket” was a perennial favourite at All Saints’, baskets filled with donated new items, usually but not always thematically connected, wrapped in cellophane and seasonally decorated with ribbons and bows. Some with a set price, some requiring the purchaser to offer a price in the form of an auction bid. Even though things were different for 2021, there were still a few baskets and gift collections for sale at All Saints’ along with attic treasures, collectables, a booth with hand-knit items for younger children, books, toys and new stuffed toys. The kitchen was in use with a limited menu that included: Hot Dogs, Veggie Dogs, Cookies, Caramel Squares, Coffee/Tea and Juice, all at bargain prices.

A feature of the fair for 2021, were several silent auction items, primarily - new donated blankets still in their factory wrappings, and a collection of framed original art photographs donated by a parishioner who is a photographer. The vicar, the Reverend Justin Cheng and one of the two deacons of the parish, the Reverend Leah Skuro were present along with parish leaders including Rector’s Warden, Mildred Johnson who warmly welcomed visitors including the two of us from the Synod office.

Mildred and her colleague, People’s Warden, Helen Duff said that they went ahead with the November 13 event with confidence, galvanized by the experience of hosting a garage sale last August 7. Mildred said, “We struggled more with deciding on August 7 because of the COVID restrictions, but based on the success of August 7, we were more confident to have a Christmas sale this year.” Heather added, “We knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I believe it is an important outreach to our neighbours and others so it was not a difficult decision to have the fair this year.”

Admittedly they had less people attending and there was the added hassle of checking vaccine passports and dealing with reduced space for people to sit together and enjoy the food service. There will be some reflecting about the process of the silent auction, specifically around when to close out the bidding. There was a total of fourteen volunteers and zero regrets about staging the fair this year, both Mildred and Heather said, “It was a lot of work (particularly the set-up), but we had a lot of fun.”

The Reverend Cheng reported on the day that commerce was not as brisk as in pre-pandemic times, however, gathering the community and working together to stage the event was a good experience and a good start to getting “back to normal.”

The Quality Fair at St. Laurence, Coquitlam is one of the largest, most comprehensive, and successful annual church fairs around. The parish hall is large, and the fair is laid out convention-style with a large centre section of merchandise, mostly used items that might be found at a garage sale. The perimeter of the room features tables with a variety of specialties: knitting, crafts, books, toys (a very large toy section), baking, jams and jellies and some higher end “treasures” including silverware and musical instruments. The main entrance to the building from St. Laurence Street contained many tables with “Gift Baskets”. Access to the fair was through the parking lot on the northeast side of the building and when we arrived at 2:30pm an hour before closing, Tony was on duty and offered a friendly greeting and gladly posed for a photo or two.

According to St. Laurence’s People’s Warden, Julie Lemon, the parish did not hold a COVID-19 version of the Quality Fair in 2020, and there was some uncertainty about going ahead with the 2021 iteration as numbers and health orders kept changing. However, they began planning in the summer, even though they weren’t entirely convinced that the November fair would happen. The 2021 version was a smaller, scaled back event with the presentation of vaccine cards and the wearing of masks mandatory. And there were no food sales apart from wrapped and sealed products sold at designated tables. The 2019 Quality Fair was the most successful ever with $14, 000 raised. The 2021 version raised approximately $8,000, but money isn’t everything as Julie attests, “We had many positive comments from the community. We felt it was a very much needed incentive to attract people from the community. And it was sooo good for St. Laurence to gather again to work on a project that was hard work but fun as well.” Although there were fewer shoppers and lower revenue, the organizers had no problem mobilizing a large cohort of welcoming and helpful volunteers.

At both of our stops on that rainy November afternoon (as fate would have it the beginning of the Atmospheric River event) Naya was able to find some great gifts for her parents at bargain prices!