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Date: 10/7/2021
GRANBY - Residents will have the opportunity to shop from an array of vendors while also supporting a good cause during the Columbus Day Craft Sale.
The craft fair will be hosted by the Granby Preservation Society on Oct. 11 outside of Kellogg Hall on 250 State St. in Granby. Judy DeLong, who serves as the project manager for Granby To-Go and volunteers with the Granby Preservation Society, said one of her colleagues served as inspiration for the event. "My co-chair, Judy LePlant, is phenomenal with her crafts," she said. "She helped me out in this process a lot, we had a lot of vendors interested."
She said LePlant's talent along with her interest in crafts and desire to support local businesses led to the organizing of the event. "I love crafts anyway. It's something different and unique and you're supporting local businesses and get peoples' wares out," she said.
DeLong said the event will feature homemade goods from 30 vendors "from all different areas from the state." She said items vendors would be selling included knitted items, crocheted items, handmade granite pieces, homemade glasswares, jewelry and more. She added that there would be a concession table so "people can eat food while they're there."
In addition to vendors selling goods, she said there would also be a number of non-profit organizations at the event. Such organizations included Granby To-Go, the Granby Historical Society and GCAM. "We invited them to get involved also hand out their literature and education people on things," he said.
DeLong said all the proceeds from vendors purchasing space, which had sold out, will go to benefit the Granby Preservation Society for their renovation of Kellogg Hall. "It's this amazing, beautiful hall that they restore and with the maintain the upkeep," she said. "It's a big benefit to the community." Additionally, she said the Granby Historical Society had hosted tag sales and food drives to "help the community out," so she felt it was important to give back to the organization as well.
She said despite the outdoor setting, they were encouraging social distancing and mask wearing.
"We're asking for social distancing so there's not clustering. We ourselves at the concession stand will be wearing masks, they should probably wear them with the variant around," she said. "There will be a sanitizing station and we'll be asking them to keep moving along so we don't have big crowds in one area. Everything will be measured off, so we are doing that per the town's guidelines for that."
DeLong said she felt as though "people want to get out" and was hoping to be able to continue the craft fair. "I'm hoping this can be something we can maybe do twice a year, in spring and the fall time," she said.
"We just wanna make it a good event for people to have fun, come to and get resources available in the area," she said.
The event is scheduled to take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a rain date doc Oct. 16.