By By ERIN VER BERKMOES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Look no further than the St. Mary's Holiday Arts and Crafts Bazaar to solve your holiday gift giving needs.
This Saturday, Nov. 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., St. Mary's School, located at 217 S. Lincoln Ave., Niles, will be packed with 90 talented artists and crafters from Niles and the surrounding areas.
The crafters will offer everything from holiday decorations, to animal clothing, knick knacks and stationary. The fourth and fifth grade students from St. Mary's will be conducting a fundraiser for their class trip by selling christmas greenery and cookie mixes layered in glass jars.
The Christian Service Center volunteers will also be conducting a bake sale and a country store. “We are sold out of spaces for crafters,” Candace Skalla, co-chairman of the holiday arts and crafts bazaar, said. “This is an event which many people in the community look forward to, as it has been going on for more than 20 years. The event is sponsored by the Christian Service Center at St. Mary's. All of the proceeds from the event will go to the local food pantry, Skalla said.
Each month the pantry helps to feed about 100 local families who can't afford basic needs for their families.
Skalla said in the last three months the number of those being helped by the Christian Service Center has jumped to between 120 and 130 families a month.