Two Saturday sales fill up Cranberry Township Municipal Center
CRANBERRY TWP — Gina Michelangelo travels from Beaver each year to shop at the Farkleberry Craft Show, where this year she found a pink crocheted hat that she put on immediately.
She said the Saturday, Nov. 7, sale at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center was a good start to the holiday shopping season.
“This is one of my favorites,” Michelangelo said. “It’s got so much to see.”
Michelangelo’s appreciation for the event was shared by many others — parking for the event spilled from the municipal center parking lot to the neighboring lots throughout the day Saturday.
But the Farkleberry Craft Show, hosted by the Cranberry Women’s Club, was just one sale taking place in the building Saturday. While sellers set up throughout the municipal center for the Farkleberry sale, the Makerspace within the Cranberry Public Library was dedicated to a sale that was fundraising to pay off the repair of its laser engraver.
The items in the Makerspace were all created there — from 3D printed earrings to coasters and decor made by the laser engraver.
The Makerspace sale took place from Thursday to Saturday, and Mary Frances Reutzel, Makerspace manager for the library, said more than 75% of the items were already sold by Saturday. Reutzel also said the goal was to raise around $6,000 through the sale, with the cost to repair the laser being about $5,000.
The Makerspace was prepared for the sale thanks to the help from its loyal crafters, according to Reutzel.
“Everything out there is them,” she said of the items for sale. “We’re all stepping up to help.”
The laser engraver caught fire in July, and Reutzel said it was repaired by August, but the classes and programs had to be rescheduled for months later.
Although the Makerspace had been pretty cleaned out by Saturday, the sellers for the Farkleberry Craft Show started the day completely stocked up.
Kathleen Perry, chairwoman of the Farkleberry market, said there were about 95 vendors registered this year, with their vendor fee of $65 going toward the women’s club fundraising for the six organizations it will give to this year.
Perry said applications for the craft show are released in July, and are returned quickly. In addition to the vendor fee, all sellers have to donate an item of theirs to a raffle basket which the club doles out during the craft show, according to Perry.
The municipal center was crowded with shoppers by the midmorning, and Perry said the members of the women’s club would be there for many more hours — but she wasn’t complaining.
“It’s very good for the club to do this event,” she said. “Just for us to hang around together, because you really have all day long with each other, it’s just a positive.”
The “Farkleberry” title of the craft show came from a holiday fundraiser that KDKA used to do. KDKA Radio host, Jack Bogut, sold “Farkleberry Tarts” and cookies to raise money for the Free Care Fund, according to KDKA. Perry said that when the women’s club was starting its own craft show fundraiser more than 30 years ago, the members picked up on the name because of its significance to Pittsburghers.
“That’s why we picked it up and it stuck,” Perry said.
