By putting in work and passion, event coordinators are planning holiday events for the Souderton community.
Souderton community hosts an annual holiday parade, which was held on December 7 from 11-1 p.m. While the parade is fun for the community, participants believe “it takes a lot of work,” drum major Meg Cross said.
The High School’s Big Red Marching Band participates in the parade and begins preparing for it in November when band members receive their music.
To practice for the parade, the marching band does “hours and hours of practice and repetition of the same stuff,” Cross said.
For freshman Logan McCormick, he was excited to march in the parade.
McCormick broke his ankle at the beginning of the season. “[the parade was] my first time actually performing again,” McCormick said.
Another holiday event is the Woman’s Club Craft Fair. The craft fair was held on November 16 at Indian Crest Middle School. The Woman’s Club hosted the craft fair to raise money for the community. This was the 63rd anniversary of the annual craft fair.
Since the events first year, the tradition has changed. When the craft fair first began, it was a luncheon and ham dinner. The members of the Woman’s Club made all the food. As it went on “they began letting more crafters in,” Woman’s Club co-chair Peggy Phillips said.
The location has changed as well, beginning at the old high school, then moving to Franconia Elementary School. For the past eight years, the fair was held at Indian Crest Middle School.
“There are a lot of good things about [the craft fair,]” Phillips said. The Senior Woman’s Club makes baskets to sell, while the Junior Woman’s Club makes breakfast and lunch to be sold at the fair.
Time goes into planning the craft fair. The planning process starts in June and goes until November. The Woman’s Club emails crafters to participate in the event, with many more crafters on the waiting list. “I send out emails of registration forms to the crafter who were there before and everybody on the waiting list,” Phillips said.
The craft fair gains money by selling food as well as charging the vendors. The money they earn gets distributed to different places, but every year $1,000 gets donated to different causes in Souderton.
This event is so popular that the venue runs out of parking spaces. Moyer Indoor Outdoor allows the vendors to park in the parking lot next to the school.
“We have shuttle drivers,” co-chair Opy Eskandorian said. The shuttles are there to help the vendors with their products to sell.
Along with the other events, Souderton’s Winter Workshop is organized by wood tech teacher Kenneth Meyers. Many students volunteer to help run it. The workshop is for the district’s first-grade students. The students walk around and participate in activities based around the holidays. Like all of the other activities, this event is hard to prepare for. It’s not only hard because of all of the materials, but also “takes coordination between [the high school] and the elementary” Meyers said.