Heritage Museum seeks new leadership for holiday bazaar

The first weekend in November has been known as Holiday Bazaar time at the Heritage Museum for decades.

Even before it became a Friday-Saturday event in 2004, it had already been established as the craft show that ushered in the holiday season on the first Saturday in November. 

It was also set apart because it was exclusively for handcrafted or homemade items. 

The Holiday Bazaar served the museum well as the main annual fundraiser for many years. With income from admissions collected only during the summer season, it was the Bazaar that paid for the winter heating bills and annual insurance premium, along with some other basic expenses.

"We are now at a crossroads," board member Laurie Mari said. "The co-chairs of this event announced at the end of last year's Bazaar that they would be retiring from chairing it. Some efforts were made to find a new chair (or two co-chairs) to carry on with it, but they were unsuccessful. 

"So we are reaching out to the community to see if there are people interested who would like to find out more details before jumping in. It certainly takes more than one person to run it successfully. There are many small jobs to be done, too. The former chair/co-chair will be there to explain what's involved, as well as a few others who have been helped before. New ideas can be discussed, so please feel free to share your thoughts."

An informational meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13 at the Heritage Museum Cookhouse.

"We are anxious to get some new people involved so that this treasured tradition can continue," Mari said. 

Those unable to attend the meeting, but would still like information, may email Laurie at heritagemuseum@frontier.com or text or call 406-291-0770.

The Winter Expo, a craft and direct sales event with vendors of all kinds, will continue unchanged. This year's dates are Friday and Saturday, Dec. 12-13.