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Kiwanis Craft Fair set for Friday and Saturday

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - The first Gateway to the Grand Canyon Arts and Crafts Fair will take place this Friday and Saturday at the Williams Rodeo Grounds, 501 E. Rodeo Road.

The Kiwanis Club of Williams is putting on the event, which will go from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.

Kiwanis members and event organizers Cathy and Pat Schlecht said the fair will feature more than 45 vendors selling handcrafted items. In addition to some local vendors, the fair will also feature vendors from Chino Valley, Camp Verde, Sedona, Scottsdale, Tucson, Parker, Tuba City, and some from California and New Mexico.

"So it's turning out to be so much more grand than we thought it would be," Cathy said.

Vendors will be selling items such as jewelry, pottery, quilts, photography, paintings, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, yard ornaments and baby items.

"It's a really great variety of stuff that we have, just something for almost all tastes of artistic crafts that people may like," Cathy said.

Organizers said the fair is a good opportunity to find gifts for graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, special occasions or Christmas.

A raffle and silent auction featuring items donated by vendors will also take place at the fair. Local singer Kerry-Lynn Moede will provide music for the event.

The Kiwanis Club of Williams will sell lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on both days, including hamburgers, hotdogs, Polish dogs, chips and drinks.

The club will also sell breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. on Saturday including pancakes, sausage, orange juice and coffee. A dessert bar featuring bars, pies and cakes and beverages will be available all day for both days.

All proceeds from the event go toward student scholarships and activities.

"Basically it's all about kids," Pat said. "All the money we raise goes to support the youth activities."

This year, the local club is providing five $600 scholarships for graduating seniors. The Kiwanis Club of Williams also supports the Student of the Month program, the Community Holiday Dinner, student sports physicals, the Teacher of the Year program, Yes I Can, free swim days, the Boy Scouts and Little League.

"When they come to us and ask, we pretty much always give," Cathy said. "We like giving to the children."

The 22 Kiwanis Club members also volunteer their time to help with painting and cleaning, Easter egg stuffing, Clean and Beautiful activities, the Run for the Wall event and Salvation Army bell ringing.

Historically, the Kiwanis Club of Williams' major fundraiser has been its summer swap meet, now called the Route 66 Street Market. The market will take place on weekends starting on Memorial Day weekend at the BNSF property on the west end of town. Dry camping will be allowed again this summer, after it was prohibited during last year's market.

"We only garnered 25 percent of the income we historically had gotten once we lost dry camping, so we had to find a way to generate income," Pat said of the idea for the craft fair. "Williams is one of the few towns that doesn't have an arts and crafts fair for a tourist destination."

Organizers are hoping for a large turnout at the craft fair, which would bring in more money for the Kiwanis Club to use for youth activities.

"(The craft fair is) just another venue coming to Williams for the community and tourists to be able to enjoy," Cathy said. "We really encourage the community to support it so that maybe this can become a really successful annual event."

More information is available from Cathy at (928) 216-0316.


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