Saturday Market Tries Another Season

The Saturday Market first tried to get off the ground about three years ago, I think, but it has been and continues to be a struggle.  The first year, there was this 'big dream' about it being like the Salt Spring market, which caused people to try to reject anything but original/local crafts and fresh produce.  But we don't have enough local artists/artisans willing to populate a regular summer market.  So the second season, they tried to corral the resale types, which also didn't work very well.  Further, the availability of fresh produce dropped dramatically.  Then, last year, it disappeared almost entirely, except for very occasional offerings.  And the artisans fell to a small number, as well.

This year, we might hope for something better, although I don't know why since I don't sense any significant organized effort being made to make it better.  One of the things I have learned from library fundraising is that it requires a constant effort to keep the community even marginally engaged in any community project.  It just won't work to send out a few emails and hope for the best.

Nevertheless, Point Roberts-style, that is what this fourth year is primarily based upon.  I've been at the market all three years.  With Ed, the first two years: he was selling his Point Roberts postcards while I sold off our too-large CD collection; and then last year raising money for the library.  It's always a pleasure, even for someone who is not particularly extroverted, to talk with people in a public setting like this where the primary activity can only be talking to people.  We may be buying or selling something, but talking is the medium of the day and so the rules of talking to strangers are very clear: it is expected.

So, if you have something that can take up a tablespace and interest strangers, try it out.  Or if you are a potential buyer (and talker), come and see us all.  We won't show up in your back yard to talk, after all, or at least not most of us, so this would be your only chance to talk to us.  The quilters will do at least one weekend this summer, so if you are a fabric type, keep an eye out for the weekend they're coming.  And I expect there will be some plants regularly.  And Heidi Baxter is soliciting fresh produce for a table of herbs and greens and flowers (currently, anyway) that will benefit the library: she's hoping to do this most Saturdays.  Some local crafts will be available.  If more people come, I expect more will be available.

This Saturday, from 10-1, is the first scheduled market.  If it's raining, it's not happening, but at the moment, the weather wizards say Not rain on Saturday.  And remember also that if you come to the Friends of the P.R. Library table, you can donate your $20 to the library at the Market, get a button, get your name recorded in the Donation Book, get a free raffle ticket on the quilt pictured at left (drawing the end of August), and Be Among Friends.  Also, you can fly a "Piece of the Library" Peace Flag.  There's lots to do here so come and do it.