Visitors to Calvary United Methodist Church's Christmas Bazaar in Mount Airy on Dec. 5 will have the opportunity to choose from handcrafted items made very near to and very far from home.
This year's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Bazaar will feature a variety of crafts selected from the SERRV International Gift Shop in New Windsor. More than 30 countries are represented in goods sold at the gift shop, and all bazaar proceeds from SERRV items will benefit the mission of the Church of the Brethren's Self-Help Handcrafts organization.
The fund-raising bazaar will be held on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Calvary Church, 403 S. Main St., Mount Airy. The event will also feature items crafted by local artisans -- dolls, bears, ornaments, pet stockings, beanbags, cloth books, cross-stitch items, woodcrafts, toys, doll quilt kits and more.
Pictures with Santa will be available for children of all ages during the event. Calvary's Bell Choir will perform music of the season at 11 a.m., and a church-wide scavenger hunt is also planned as entertainment.
Hearty soups and sandwiches will be for sale, as well as an assortment of baked goods.
Proceeds from the Mount Airy portion of the bazaar will go toward refurbishing Calvary's basement. For more information, call chairman Marty Mathis at 829-2032.
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If schools were graded on community service, the students and staff at Mount Airy Middle School would get an A+.
It has been a busy month for these sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, who collected more than 125 children's winter coats that will be cleaned by Modern Ideal Dry Cleaners in Westminster and then given to the Salvation Army for distribution to needy children.
On the heels of the Coats for Kids campaign, the students held their annual Canned Food Drive. In one week they collected 4,513 cans to assist the Mount Airy Jaycees in their annual Thanksgiving Baskets Project.
A little friendly competition between the homerooms and teams at the school may be responsible for this record-breaking canned food collection.
Last year, they collected about 3,800 cans.
Special congratulations should go to the students in Terri Wilson's homeroom who collected 801 cans for the drive, as well as to Team Five, which garnered 1,654 cans. (Team Three was a close second with 1,642, and second-place honors also go to Lois Dolan's homeroom, which collected 555 cans.)
Teachers assisting these 630 civic-minded students in their efforts are Beverly Hawkins and Connie Casamento, co-chairs of the Community Service Committee.
Work didn't stop with the food collection. Mrs. Hawkins said students have been organizing the canned goods into food groups to help the Jaycees when they begin to put together the food baskets tonight.
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Providing Thanksgiving baskets to the needy in the community has become a tradition for the Mount Airy Jaycees.
The "baskets" are really boxes packed to the rim with a variety of foods, including a large ham or turkey, pies, milk, potatoes, stuffing, flour, sugar, peanut butter and jelly, bread, juice, fruit and more. Each basket will be accompanied by some of the bounty of canned goods collected by students at Mount Airy Middle School.
Thirty-seven baskets will be given to local families in need on Saturday, said project chairwoman Debbie Ruprecht. "It should last them more than just the holidays," she said.
Work on packing the baskets begins tonight, and Mrs. Ruprecht invites any citizens who would like to assist the Jaycees to show up at the middle school at 101 Watersville Road at 6 p.m. Perishables will be added to the Thanksgiving baskets tomorrow morning just before delivery, said Mrs. Ruprecht.
For more information about the project, call (301) 831-5417. Anyone who would like to make a donation to assist the Jaycees in the Thanksgiving Project or the Needy Children's Christmas Party in December may mail contributions to: The Mount Airy Area Jaycees, P.O. Box 82, Mount Airy, Md. 21771.
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Recycle your plastic grocery bags from Weis Markets and help raise money for the chorus at South Carroll High School.
Linda Hager, the mother of chorus member, has been collecting these bags for some time and would appreciate donations of clean Weis bags from the community to help with the project.
It takes a lot of bags to equal a pound and many pounds of bags to help the chorus.
For more information or to arrange for bag pickup, call Mrs. Hager at 795-8517.
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South Carroll High School's Stagelighters will present Arthur Miller's drama about the Holocaust, "Playing for Time," tonight .. and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the school, 1300 W. Old Liberty Road, Winfield.
The cost is $3 for adults and $2 for students. Tickets will be sold at the door.