Montrose longest-running craft show benefits local charities

MWC show fills Friendship Hall, Photo Courtesy San Juan Publishing

By Kathryn R. Burke

It started more than 40 years ago, an event designed to provide an early holiday shopping opportunity which would also help those in need. Montrose Women’s Club (MWC) gathered local artisans, artists, and crafters to show and sell their work at an annual pre-holiday event. Proceeds from renting vendor tables for the show is given back to the community in the spring, when the club selects several groups to receive the show bounty.

Because the show was…and still is… run entirely by volunteers, table rental costs are affordable, which helps the vendors. Many spend much of the year working on their creations, so this is a big event for them, a chance to sell the things they made at a low-cost venue.

Holiday gift items and decor are especially popular. Photo by Lorraine Shide.

Participating vendors come from all around the region, not just Montrose and Delta. Some travel from Paonia and Hotchkiss, even Grand Junction. Others come down from Ouray, Ridgway, Telluride, and Silverton. We even have a few from Durango!

The MWC show is also a time socialization event for old friends, Vendors and customers enjoy catching up on what everyone has been doing since the last time they all got together. New home, new kids, grandkids, pets, maybe a job change. Sometimes customers, after retiring, become vendors, too.

Originally called the Holiday Bazaar, this community event is now called the Harvest and Holiday Bazaar. Covid shut the show down for a couple years, when people avoided public gatherings. Then a flurry of shows run by commercial enterprises encompassed MWC’s original show dates. So, wanting to keep it an affordable alternative for vendors and available for early shopping by locals…MWC moved the date back to include fall holidays as well as the Christmas season.

The show features many hand-crafted items by local artisans.

It was a good move, embraced by both sellers and buyers. The show has grown since its beginning in the 1980s. We’re now at 100 tables…offering personal and commercial services, tables for non-profits, and an eclectic array of merchandise. You can find hand-crafted wood, glass, and metal work, fine art and artisan-made items, antiques and collectibles, personal products, clothing and jewelry, fall and holiday décor, toys, things for pets, and a variety of food items. And, of course, the ever-popular stick-horse you always see galloping around the hall. There is…literally… something for everyone.

This year’s show, Oct. 20 & 21, Montrose Fairgrounds Friendship Hall

To add to the fun and excitement, besides all the merchant tables, the show also includes a section for bargain, flea-market tables, food and snacks’ trucks, kids’ coloring areas, door prizes, and $5 grab bags. Admission is Free.

Montrose Women’s Club invites you to join them, Friday, October 20 from 9 am to 6 pm, and Saturday, October 21 from 9 am to 4 pm, at Friendship Hall, Montrose Fairgrounds.

MWC Harvest & Holiday Bazaar benefits local charities.

2019 Awards

  1. Welcome Home Alliance for Veterans

Issues addressed: include assistance to veterans in job placement, mental health, peer to peer mentoring, recreation opportunities, housing assistance

  1. Christ’s Kitchen

            Issues addressed: Food for hungry people, particularly those in need. Last year fed approximatively 22, 000 people.

  1. Shephard’s Hand

Provides food and shelter with assistance in employment, limited financial assistance, partners with churches and shelters for food boxes and limited overnight housing for homeless, including families with children.

  1. Sharing Ministries

            Provides food to needy, facilitate education on food handing and preparation, assist other community resources.  Serves approx. 5,000 per month

  1. Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Builds beds for children to eliminate children having to sleep on the floor. Built 66 beds last year with 16 children on waiting list.

  1. Dolphin House

Serve victims of child abuse in 7th judicial district, providing help and healing while assisting Child Protection Services and Law Enforcement Agencies. Served 650 cases last year.

  1. Montrose Botanic Gardens

Provides horticultural education and demonstration to serve all ages with pleasure, leisure and mental health. Saw approx. 6000 visitors last year.

  1. Montrose County Historical Society & Museum

Preserve, display and interpret historic and cultural legacy of Montrose County, operates Historical museum and hosts free monthly public program, served approx. 2000 individuals last year. Funds will purchase interpretive signage.

  1. MADA

Lessen suffering of persons of low income, offers household items, clothing, lockers, showers, laundry services, life skills training, mail reception point, telephone accessibility. Served approx. 350 last year

  1. Montrose County Sheriff’s Posse

Search and Rescue services, Wildland Firefighting Security, other services to Sheriff of Montrose County, including missing persons, traffic control, Montrose County Fair and High School Senior Party security. 40 missions last year served hundreds of people.

  1. Kid’s Aid Montrose

            Provides food and fills backpacks with enough food to feed child during the weekend. Serves homeless and needy children attending school in Montrose and Olathe.

  1. Save the Sculptures

            Effort to raise funds to purchase the large sculptures on corners of Uncompahgre/Main and Townsend/Main. The funds raised to this point are being held by Montrose Community Foundation. This MWC award would be with the following stipulation: “If adequate funds are not raised to purchase the sculptures, the money given by Montrose Women’s Club would be returned to the Montrose Woman’s Club Treasury.”

13  Montrose Center for the Arts.

Alternate, if Save the Sculptures do not get sufficient funding.