Arriving too much past the opening time of 10:30am Saturday morning might have meant parking quite a distance away from the WAB Charity Bazaar. One of the most popular bazaars of the season, this year’s did not disappoint with over 100 vendors, plus charities, food, fun activities, great entertainment and more!
Beneficiaries
This year’s bazaar sponsored New Hope Foundation, providing skin graft surgery for a young boy from Shandong Province born with serious melanocytic nevus. Also sponsored was Yearn to Learn, a school for mentally-disabled children, providing sponsorship for one teacher for one year.
Aside from the spotlight charities, many others are helped through the bazaar’s success. The “Angels” program continues to give the gift of sight to 10 elderly who require cataract surgery via Operation Blessing. In addition, they will also gift a bed for a migrant child through the Migrant Children’s Foundation.
Services
The Grade 12 Legacy Project, sponsored by The Learning Center, provided on-site babysitting service for only RMB 100 during the day in the hopes of raising funds to provide badly-needed repairs to a local migrant school and outfit that school with a library.
BJU had a blood mobile for their "Give blood. Save lives." campaign. Those wishing to donate could do so on a walk-in basis as long as they had a copy of a passport or Chinese ID with them.
Fun
Kids had plenty of fun activities to keep them entertained, from face painting with Nina Griffee, DIY chocolates with LaPlace Chocolates, holiday card making with beijingkids magazine and more. One very popular spot for the tweens again this year was hair flair!
And entertainment for all! Beginning at 10:30 were the WAB Grade 5 Drummers, followed by drama, choir, bands and more. Jade is an amazing opera singer who took the stage for the first time that afternoon to an appreciative audience – we’re likely to hear about her again.
Food
Stopping for a snack or lunch was easy-peasy with Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Korean and many more foods and treats. The Parent Link bake sale and the famous gingerbread houses at the Finnish Community table were just a few places to satisfy the sweet tooth, and take goodies home, too!
Shopping!
Home decorating items, books and toys, photography, jewelry, handicrafts, holiday wrapping paper, coffees and teas, skincare products, clothing and accessories, woodcarvings, specialty foods, and more! Many unique gifts and items were on hand to choose from, making holiday shopping a breeze.
The popular raffle gave shoppers a chance to win a special item, with all proceeds benefitting charitable projects. Three times during the bazaar, eight different prizes were displayed. Tickets were placed only in the box of the prize you wanted to win, and winners were texted on their mobile phone!
A great day was had by all, and I, for one, am already looking forward to next year!
