The Dexter United Methodist Church and Red Bird Mission Gifts will host an Appalachian Craft Fair at the church on Saturday, Nov. 2 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. and on Sunday Nov. 3 from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Featured will be handmade crafts from southeast Kentucky including baskets woven from honeysuckle vine, creek willow and other natural materials gathered in the mountains of Kentucky. There will be traditional woven placemats, table runners and coasters, wooden toys and cooking utensils, pottery platters, bowls and baking items, pewter jewelry, lap dulcimers, handmade dolls, nativity scenes and holiday ornaments and notecards.
Red Bird Mission Crafts markets the work of about 100 crafters who live within an 80-mile radius of its store on Red Bird Mission campus in Beverly, KY. The mission markets local crafts, providing a source of income for many mountain families according to information about the group.
The store contributes to economic development in Clay, Leslie and Bell counties, where the unemployment rate is 50 percent.
Since 1996, the church has sent teams of volunteers to work at the Red Bird Work Camp each year and they perform home repairs for low-income residents.
Chelsea resident Dan Teare has led many of the church’s trips to Red Bird, He said in a press release, “This is a wonderful opportunity to purcahse high-quality items made by the artisans of southern Kentucky.”
In addition to the craft fair, the church, located at 7643 Huron River Dr., will host a soup and sandwich luncheon on Nov. 2 from 11 a..-2 p.m. and proceeds to go to the mission.
For more information call 426-8480 or click here or here.
