By Hannah Levy and Adrianna Astudillo

Arundel High school has been hosting their annual Craft Fair for over 30 years. The fair is for local businesses to share and sell their products, most of which are homemade. This year, the fair was held on Saturday, December 8th, and had a high turnout from clubs, vendors, and customers.

Carol Myers, a former AP English teacher and Key Club and Speech and Debate advisor, started the Arundel Craft Fair for smaller clubs as a form of fundraising. As she was getting ready to retire, she started teaching Lynne Clark, a former Arundel math teacher, the basics of hosting the craft fair.  “I’ve been doing the fair now for about ten years or so,” Clark says. “Now we get a lot of the small clubs and organizations to help us and they can make a little money with it.”

The cost for admission is free, though it’s $35 dollars for the vendors to rent a space and sell their products. This year, there were about 130 vendors that participated in the fair and 15 Arundel clubs that signed up to help out. Most of the students assisted in the cafeteria serving food, setting up, and cleaning up, while others helped with selling products. Lily Putnam, an Arundel student and member of Speech and Debate, assisted her grandmother at a booth in the cafeteria. “I also helped out the other crafters for the fundraiser because it gives more money so that [Speech and Debate] can go to nationals and participate in different states,” she said. Putnam has been participating in the fair for about four years, and has really enjoyed it.

The school was filled with tables, which took up the entire cafeteria and almost four hallways. It was difficult to navigate through the halls because of the number of people that came. Most of the booths were selling Christmas items, while others were selling homemade food and artwork. Many vendors were newcomers, and they pleased with how the event was organized.