By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The holiday season is quickly approaching and Columbiana United Methodist Church is getting prepared to host their first holiday event of the season.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, the church, located at 200 North Main Street in Columbiana, will host its first ever Holiday Craft Show, Bazaar and Silent Auction.

 “It’s not just handcrafted things like sewing or wood products, but also food, essential oils and other things,” said F Cubed Committee Chairman Kathy Corbitt. “We have multiple varieties of vendors coming, which should lead to a fun bazaar.”

Corbitt said right now 32 vendors have signed on to join the event and showcase their items.

“Thirty-two vendors is way more than we expected,” she said. “We expected the number to be between 12 and 15, but as it has progressed and word has traveled, more have wanted to be a part of the event.

Corbitt said they actually ran out of room to hold all of the vendors in the multi-purpose room, which was the original plan, so now they will also be lined up down the hallway of the church.

The show will offer handmade gifts, candles, jewelry, baked goods, jams and jellies, wreaths, holiday décor, pottery, wood work, collectibles and much more.

Corbitt said she came up with the idea when she went to a similar event last fall at Shelby Elementary and saw people enjoying themselves. She decided to get business cards and send out emails, which got a lot of interest.

The children’s ministry will be preparing and serving breakfast foods during the morning portion of the event before the Men’s fellowship takes over the grill in the afternoon to feed everybody hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch.

Corbitt said they are also hoping to have a Sno Biz trailer in the parking lot to give people a little something sweet to enjoy after their lunch.

A silent auction will take place as well and will include items donated from each of the vendors in attendance, as well as objects from local businesses in Columbiana.

Vendors will keep all of the profit they make at the event, but the church will benefit from the vendor fee they had to pay, as well as everything that is raised during the silent auction.

“The F Cubed Committee will get the proceeds,” Corbitt said. “This is the committee that puts on the monster walk, our tailgate party during the fall, a valentines banquet and other events throughout the year.”

She said every year when it comes time for budget requests, she hated asking for the amount of money it would take to put on the fall festival and other events, so she wanted to create something that would help them not have to ask for as much money.

“It just seemed like a lot of money to ask the church to help with so I thought of ways to raise money,” Corbitt said. “Hopefully this will at least help us not have to request as much money at next year’s budget meeting.”

She also said this is meant to be a social fellowship type of event that they want to offer people to come and enjoy at no charge.

“We’ve had some small craft events before, but this is the first time we’ve held one of this magnitude with outside vendors and we hope to make this an annual event,” Corbitt said.