On Saturday, November 2, 2024, Marshall Family Hall inside Alliance For Youth was bustling with customers interacting with young entrepreneurs, purchasing baked goods, artwork, and handmade items.
With the addition of 10 new vendors this year, the young creatives were able to not only show off their work and receive feedback from the community, but learned life skills like how to handle money and interact with customers.
The craft show encourages social interaction, helping the kids build confidence and gain support from the community.
Alliance For Youth’s Substance Abuse Prevention program manager Beth Price Morrison explains, “To see their faces light up with the experience, whether they make $10 or $100, it's really more or less of, ‘How cool is it that somebody really liked what I made?'"
One of the vendors, Camdyn Windrel, was selling his custom metal bracelets to fund his educational trip to New York and D.C.
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While at his booth, ‘Beadtastic’, Windrel was hard at work, using metal stamping to write messages on the custom bracelets.
Windrel says, “I do custom orders, so basically I'll grab one of my engraving letters, slide the bracelet through here, and hammer away. My favorite part is getting to make a bracelet for the customers and talk with them."
The Alliance For Youth craft show has continued to grow each year, adding more vendors who bring their unique works to the show, and allowing the kids to network with each other and find a community.
Morrison says, “You see kids crossing the room to connect with other kids, or you see one vendor helping another youth vendor. That kind of connection is just beautiful for me to be able to witness."
