Craft/Bake sale draws a crowd to Oso Hall on a grey Saturday in March

Craig Bakay | Mar 14, 2018

Laura Stewart didn’t know what to expect when she decided to organize a craft/bake sale. She’d never done this before.

“I did it because we haven’t had one in awhile,” she said. “Maybe it’s something Sharbot Lake needed.

“At least it would get some of the artists and creative people out and in the winter it’s nice to get out of the house.”

Stewart and hubby Kirk Chabot moved here just over a year ago. Chabot has ingratiated himself into the Lions Club and the Legion. Stewart works at Mike Dean’s.

“I love the community,” she said. “I love how it comes together.

“The Farmers Market is great in the summer but there isn’t as much going on in the winter.”

She noticed that “people are always talking” in the store and to a certain extent, it’s a gathering place where you run into friends and neighbours and get caught up.

“And Kirk loves to bake, so we thought . . .”

So, she started to advertise on Facebook for vendors and craftspeople and such.

“It went really smoothly,” she said. “I could have had at least 20 more vendors but there’s only so much space.

“We didn’t jury it but we did have to say no to some people because we didn’t want doubles.”

“I made 10 dozen butter tarts, 10 dozen lemon/cherry tarts and 10 dozen banana breads,” Chabot said. “I didn’t know how many to make.”

It seemed to work out. There was a steady stream of visitors and at times, it was so crowded that getting through took awhile. Of course, there were a lot of people standing around visiting, but that was kind of the point too.

They took donations for the Food Bank too.

Stewart said she doesn’t know if this was a one-off or there will be more. But this one seemed to go over well.

“I think craft shows are something you can’t have every month,” she said. “But we’ll talk about that.

“I work every other weekend, so we’d have to work around that.”