Advent Festival  

November 5, 2009

Thursday 9:00am

Detail: The Advent Festival features 10,000 Villages in their largest sales venue outside of their own stores. Every gift you purchase from 10,000 Villages sends the proceeds back to the third world artisans who make the handmade bowls, jewelry, bags, rugs, etc. The Alternative Gift Market offers a long list of choices including food, clothing, shelter, educational and medical supplies for needy people of the world. Sales of homemade Christmas cookies benefit Fairfield Orphanage at Old Mutare Mission in Zimbabwe.  Gather the family for a hot breakfast, do your Christmas shopping and have it gift wrapped, select your favorite homemade Christmas cookies, enjoy childcare for little ones while your preschool and elementary kids make Christmas gifts for their favorite people, buy evergreen decorations or make an Advent craft for your home. Give your children the chance to share with others by providing canned foods and warm mittens for families in our community. The best part is that you can do all this (and more!) in just one place, filled with holiday music and spirit, a warm and beautifully decorated place with plenty of free parking. All proceeds from this event directly support mission projects right here in northeast Ohio and around the world. Admission is a donation of canned foods for the Cory Hunger Center. Support Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith Hospitality Network, West Side Community Center, Co-op Nursery School and the Genevieve Seese Library with your purchases. Global missions include work trips to Haiti, Costa Rica, our youth mission trips, and providing relief and development gifts such as trees, livestock, food and medicine for the world’s poor and for environmental concerns. Do not miss Tom Sperl’s famous donuts hot from the fryer and Free Trade coffee for sale by the cup or bag. Visit the children’s book and toy sale. You are encouraged to bring new children’s mittens, gloves, hats, scarves or socks for the Mitten Tree with all items donated to the West Side Community Center.