New craft festival benefits school in India
Vendors from all over sold goods at the first Spring Fest Benefit Craft Fair on Saturday, hosted by USU’s Huntsman Scholars and the non-profit organization Effect International.
The free event was held in the Logan Recreation Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. USU students and Cache Valley residents participated.
Local vendors at Spring Fest included: Jessica’s Photography, Scentsy, The Pampered Chef, a booth selling henna tattoos and many others.
USU alumnus Tyler Tolson, CEO of Denik, a notebook design company, participated as a vendor in Spring Fest.
“I knew some of the students – the Huntsman Scholars who were putting it on,” Tolson said. “(Event organizers) knew what I was doing with my company, so they reached out to me. It sounded like it was going to a good cause, and it’s a good way to get exposure.”
Dallin Maxfield, a Huntsman Scholar who planned the event, said the Huntsman Scholars and Effect International have been collaborating all year to raise $25,000 to build a school in Madhya Pradesh, India. The Huntsman Scholars have been fundraising individually for it, he said, and 10 of them planned Spring Fest.
“We divided into smaller groups, and each group is trying to raise money through various fundraisers for whatever they come up with,” Maxfield said.
Maxfield said the idea for Spring Fest stemmed from Cache Valley’s November Fest and Summer Fest, which attract thousands of residents every year who are interested in craft buying and selling.
Through online advertising, flyers, word of mouth and networking with November Fest hosts, he said, the event attracted close to 30 different vendors.
“We just kind of had the idea, and we talked to people,” said Melody Jensen, a Huntsman Scholar. “We were just trying to brainstorm ways to raise money, and we wanted to kind of go out of the school a little bit, because it’s pretty saturated.”
Maxfield said donations and vendor fees all go toward building the India school. Vendors were charged a flat fee but kept all profit earned at Spring Fest. Donation tables were set up throughout the Recreation Center as well.
Ben Warnick, a Huntsman Scholar who works with Effect International, said all money earned through Spring Fest donations and fees goes toward the school in Madhya Pradesh, the poorest region in India.
“We’re building a school because a lot of kids there don’t have a school at all, or the teachers don’t show up because the government doesn’t hold them accountable. So the teachers get paid whether they go to school and teach, or not,” he said.
Many Indian families make enormous sacrifices to put their children in school, because they realize education is the only way to lift their children out of poverty, Warnick said.
The school – built by donations and fundraising events – will be named after the Huntsman Scholars and will house 120 students and provide them with uniforms, Warnick said. A small tuition fee, he said, will be charged so students don’t take the opportunity for granted.
“We charge them very, very little, but it’s a lot of money for them,” Warnick said. “The kids walk miles even just to get to the school, because the parents realize they’re not going to get an education if they go to any government schools. But with us, they’ll have a future.”
Jensen said other groups of scholars have hosted princess parties, sold reminder bands and networked with Pizza Pie Café, which gives a percentage of certain days’ proceeds toward building the school.
Maxfield said the Huntsman Scholars may continue to hold Spring Fests to earn money for nonprofit organizations.
“(Cache Valley locals) like the idea of craft fairs, they like coming to this type of thing,” Maxfield said. “If we do it in the future years, we’ll continue to spread, we’ll get more and more people involved, and we’ll have a greater turnout.”
Tolson said he encourages anyone with a product to promote it at festivals such as Spring Fest.
“If you’ve got a product or something, and you want to get it in front of people, why not go out and just do it?” Tolson said. “Find as many events as you can and go to them – talk to everybody. That’s the way you get noticed, and that’s the way you progress and move forward.”
Maxfield said the event is a good opportunity for both students and vendors to make a difference in their communities and the world.
“Once we start getting into college, we start branching out,” Maxfield said “We’re not so – for lack of a better word – helpless in this world. We have the power to start branching out and making a difference in the world.
“I think that – especially for students – something like this is a good way to give back and start getting involved, whether it be by making a donation or even starting your own business and having a booth here.”
Jensen said anybody interested in donating can email the Huntsman Scholar presidency or go to Room 309 in the George S. Eccles Business Building for more information.
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