The Board Chronicles: Canyon High Shop For A Cause

The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.

This boutique was created by an ASB parent at Canyon High School with a noble purpose. Here’s the mission statement, as shown on Facebook:

Please join us and SHOP to help raise money for Justin Covarrubias and his family. He is a senior at Canyon who was paralyzed last year in a motocross accident. His family is trying to raise money to get him an exoskeleton to help him walk again. We have 40 vendors, food trucks, pictures with Santa and lots more.

Two events are planned: the first Sundays in November and December. We could only do the first event, unfortunately. We’re out of town in December … but we were in for the first event!

New Ideas

This event was exclusive for each vendor’s product line. There was no duplication of products allowed. At first, another vendor was going to bring sugar scrub, so I was told we couldn’t bring that product. That vendor dropped out, though, so we had our full product line.
We committed to a double booth, but I was the only one available to man it, as the elder Mrs M and Miss M were at Saugus High’s Boutique Fantastique this day. The younger Mrs M is pregnant with grandchild # 2, so she gets a day off. Whenever she wants it.
The school provided an 8′ table for each booth, so I supplemented those with all we had left, a borrowed 6′ and a 4′ to create the booth space. Oh, and I added a stack of empty containers, covered with a table cloth, as our wrap station.

Observations

Actual thoughts:
- Common Wisdom, “Don’t do first-time events.”
- I thought, “But it fits on our calendar so well!”
I hadn’t driven to Canyon High in years. Hadn’t been on campus since I was leading Cub Scout Roundtable adult leader training back in the ’90s. I drove in from the South. Is this the turn? Nope. Crap. Turn around. Got to the school. Is this the right entrance? Where do I go? Nope. Crap. Turn around. Park the car and wander … found it. Really easy once I found it.
Load in was easy. I used our folding wagon: made for events just like this.
Now that I’ve moved beyond having 12×16 boards as the largest boards on display … I miss my 16×20 counter top boards when I don’t have them. Funny what you can get used to….
Entry to the event was by the Girls’ bathroom, I happened to notice. When I needed to find my bathroom, it was on the opposite side of the gym … and it was the Men’s bathroom. Wait a minute. Men? Girls? Really?
Food trucks were outside, but I didn’t have time to go get real food. I needed a partner. Or a booth sitter.
Later on a lady asked me how the event was going, and I said it was a good event. She told me she was the Assistant Principal, and I shared with her how the bathrooms have a sexist message, since they were labeled for Men and Girls … not Men and Ladies, or Boys and Girls. She had never noticed, and promised to address the outdated message next week. I’ve struck a victory for womankind!
Must be why I sold so much lotion today. Lotion outsold boards 3:1.
I’m a giver. That’s me.
Another lady visited the booth, and said she looked forward to us being back at her PTSO’s Plum Canyon Elementary Holiday Boutique. Alas, we’re conflicted that weekend and will not be a vendor. “Oh no!” she said. “I’ve had people asking about you!” So many boutiques, so little time….
This was a very good one day event. Over $2,000 was raised for Jason’s family, with more expected to be raised at the December 6 event that we’ll miss. Vendors, you could do Plum Canyon on December 5 and Canyon on December 6. If we were in town, we would!
When you combine our 3 events of this weekend (Grace Baptist Church MOPS, Saugus High’s Boutique Fantastique and this one):

Best. Weekend. Ever.

The Food

Sunday Breakfast: McDonald’s # 4

Sunday Lunch: $3 in sugary treats from the Cal. Scholarship Federation, a fundraiser for Jason. I had a Brookie. Or was it a Cownie? Not sure, but it was delish. Then there was the cupkie. Or the coocake. These people have some sort of a combination problem.

Sunday Snack: The macadamia nut cookies lasted through my late lunch into my snack … fuel to get me loaded out.

Sunday Dinner: Weliks, our new favorite, family-owned, local Mexican restaurant