welcome to hope's alternative christmas fair 2020!
This year's fair, our 20th Annual, will be all virtual and run from November 14th through December 1st.
Participants in this year's virtual Alternative Christmas Fair include Alternatives for Girls, Blessed Birthdays, Christian Family Services, Donate Life Coalition of Michigan, Fleece and Thank You, Hope Endeavors, Kids for Afghan Kids, Mend on the Move, Motown Soup, Orphan Medical Network International, Samaritas, and Hope for Women Guatemala.
alternatives for girls
Website: https://alternativesforgirls.org/events/
Description: Alternatives For Girls meets girls and women where they are. At AFG, they can access safe shelter, crisis support, and so much more. With this support, girls can stay out of harm’s way, succeed in school, graduate, and become leaders in their communities. Most importantly, they have a safe place to learn and grow.
Sew Great Detroit (SGD) is a social enterprise project of Alternatives For Girls. Women from AFG’s Outreach and Education program are taught valuable sewing and knitting skills. Since 2014, 35 women have participated in SGD and have collaborated with 18 businesses or individuals to supply sewn or knitted products.
Products Available: Hand-Sewn Adult Aprons, Hand-Sewn Children’s Aprons, Hand-Made Infant Gift Sets, Knitted Potholders, Hand-Made Ornaments, Hand-Made Bird Nesting Balls, Hand-Made Holiday Cards, Hand-Made Cashmere Hats, Hand-Made Cashmere Scarves.
blessed birthdays
Website: https://blessedbirthdays.wordpress.com
Description: Since its founding in 2012 and its first party in February 2013, Blessed Birthdays, a nonprofit 501c3 organization, has been providing birthday celebrations for at-risk children in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan as well as in the Farmington Public School District. At Blessed Birthdays, we believe that all children deserve to feel special on their birthdays, regardless of economic status. Each Blessed Birthdays birthday celebration is complete with a game, prizes, decorations, a decorated cake to take home, a birthday child-chosen present, and cupcakes for all. Every birthday matters because every child matters.
Christian Family Services
Website: www.CFS-michigan.org
Description: Christian Family Services is a faith-based, non profit agency located in Southfield. We are committed to bringing hope and healing to individuals and families through adoption and professional counseling as well as provide education and support to women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. To increase access to mental health services our counselors now participate in some health care insurance plans and continue to accept private pay clients. During the COVID pandemic, we began offering telehealth counseling services and now can provide face-to-face sessions or telehealth counseling accommodating the individual needs of our clients.
Products Available: Christian Family Services is offering beautiful home-made Christmas cards at this year’s virtual Hope Lutheran Alternative Christmas Fair. The cards come in a variety of designs and are sold in packages of 10.
Donate Life Coalition of Michigan
Website: www.DonateLifeMichigan.org
Description: Founded in 1999, the Donate Life Coalition of Michigan is comprised of hospitals, organizations and individuals dedicated to educating the public of the dire need for more registered, informed organ, tissue and eye donors. Our mission is to ensure that every individual in Michigan understands the concept of organ donation, has an opportunity to make a personal decision about organ donation and realizes the importance of signing up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. During 2021, our focus will be using social media and virtual events to educate Michigan residents on the importance of organ, tissue and eye donation and to encourage them to sign up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. Living donation education will be an additional area of focus for the year as well.
Products Available: We will offer the opportunity for website visitors to sign up on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. We will have handblown glass wine stoppers, ring holders and heart necklaces for sale. We will also have jewelry sets and bottle lights for sale.
Fleece and Thank You
Website: www.fleeceandthankyou.org
Description: Fleece & Thank You, a Michigan-based non-profit organization, is dedicated to providing connection, comfort, and hope through its programs, services and materials to children facing illness and their families supporting them. OUr goal is to provide every child facing hospital treatments with a colorful, comfortable fleece blanket and a video message of support from its maker. Our signature program is our blanket-making event. We host over 400 blanket-making events every year to help us achieve our goal of making 30,000 fleece blankets, on for every child in MI that goes into the hospital for inpatient treatments. Every blanket we provide also has a personal video message attached to it from the blanket maker to the recipient in the hospital,, who can then send a thank you message back to the maker.
Products Available: Fleece and Thank You blanket kits, Fleece and Thank You hats, Fleece and Thank You masks, Fleece and Thank You hats and tshirts.
hope endeavors
Website: www.hopeendeavors.com
Etsy Shop: HopeEndeavorsShop
Description: Our purpose is to bring hope to those suffering in extreme poverty though Hope Giving Project like Hope Village which care for Children with HIV in Malawi, Africa
Products Available: African Shoulder Bags, Jewelry, Pottery
Kids 4 afghan kids
Website: www.kids4afghankids.org
Description: Our Mission is to provide humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, including returning refugees, to create an opportunity for cooperative efforts between the United States and Afghanistan, and to develop and enhance educational and cultural understanding and exchange opportunities.
Products Available:
Chocolate Covered Pretzels: Box of 5 for $10 OR Box of 10 for $20
Hand Embroidered Cloth BookMarks: $5 each
Please email knedam@yahoo.com to place an order
mend on the move
Website: www.mendonthemove.org
Description: Mend on the Move, a 501(c)(3) non-profit social enterprise, employs survivors of abuse in Metro Detroit to create jewelry which provides them with an income while in recovery. Our jewelry is created from salvaged auto parts and car seat leather, symbolic of our commitment to serve women locally in the "motor city".
Products Available: Handcrafted Jewelry
motown soup
Website: www.motownsoup.com
Description: Motown Soup is a 501(c)3 based in Utica, Michigan. We work in a State Department of Agriculture licensed kitchen. We produce delicious mixes that include soups, dips, breads and desserts. Community support of Motown Soup and our products truly make a difference in the lives of the hungry, homeless and hurting and free clinics throughout the State of Michigan. Over the course of 15 years, we have been able to donate over $1,000,000 to these charities.
Products Available: Numerous soup, dip and dessert mixes
Orphan Medical Network International
Website: www.omnimissions.com
Description: OMNI is a non-profit 501c3 organization that provides health care, education, and community support to vulnerable children and their families in Zambia, Africa. Our mission was established there in 2001. Our goal is to continue comprehensive care and excellent education at our school that educates 337 students in grades 1-9. In addition to the education, we provide uniforms, shoes, a daily hot meal, mosquito nets, and teach life skills. Due to the extreme poverty and vulnerable conditions in Zambia, we have an additional 47 families receiving monthly home feed assistance. $40 per month feeds a family of 5 for the entire month and literally saves lives for those who are unable to provide enough food for their children. The food provided is corn meal, eggs, cooking oil, dried fish, salt and vegetables.
Products Available: A certificate of donation for $20 will feed a family for 2 weeks. This certificate can be given to family or friends in their honor for our feeding program. The certificate can be printed from our website at www.omnimissions.com.
Samaritas
Website: www.samaritas.org/Foster-Care/Refugee-Foster-Care
Store: www.samaritas.org/youth-art-show
Description: Samaritas, which is a social service organization with Lutheran roots and an ELCA 501c3 non profit, serves over 20,000 people in Michigan every year. Many of these people are children; foster children, kids in the process of adoption, seniors and New American refugees who are making a new life by settling here in Michigan.
Samaritas Refugee Foster Care Program serves unaccompanied refugee minors who have lost, or become lost, from their families while fleeing their home countries. We work with local foster homes to welcome these children into their family either long-term or temporarily. Our goal is to reunify children with their families when possible and to otherwise support and guide them while they grow into independent adults, building a new future and creating lasting connections with local families and communities in their new home. To learn how you can get involved, contact us at RFCinfo@samaritas.org.
Products Available: Products featuring art pieces created by refugee youth in Samaritas’s Refugee Foster Care program. These paintings were part of the “Let the Love Shine/Deja el Amor Brillar” exhibit: T-shirts, Posters, Stationary, Magnets, Tote Bags
Women of Hope Guatemala
(Caroline’s Promise dba Women of Hope)
Website: www.wohgt.com
Description: Women of Hope weaves together principles of business and discipleship into the fabric of our Christian ministry. This 'Business for Transformation' project empowers impoverished and often under-educated artisans with consistent employment, providing them a dependable living wage which helps them meet the basic needs of their families.
Our center's loving and nurturing environment is a safe place to grow in their faith while using their talents to beautifully handcrafted pieces, including a colorful collection of beaded and hand-woven jewelry, ornaments, dog accessories, and handbags!
Women of Hope sponsors a transition home for young women and reaches out to the community through partnerships to provide fortified rice meals to school age children.
Women of Hope is a part of Caroline’s Promise, a North Carolina based 501(c)3 non-profit.
Products Available: Beautifully handcrafted collections of handwoven & beaded jewelry, Christmas ornaments, dog accessories and handbags
What is the Alternative Christmas Fair?
Hope's annual Alternative Christmas Fair has been held the first or second Saturday of November at our Farmington Hills location for the past 19 years. The Christmas Fair provides cheerful surroundings to sell fundraising items to holiday shoppers.
This year, the fair's 20th anniversary, will be different -- it will be held online. Whether in person or online, the fair provides the opportunity for charities, non-profits, and service organizations to offer goods for sale with 100% of proceeds supporting the individuals they serve. Shoppers get the chance to learn about local, national, and international charities while buying one of a kind items to give to their loved ones as holiday gifts.
When is the Alternative Christmas Fair?
This year's first online Alternative Christmas Fair will be held from November 14th through December 1st.
Questions
Please direct all questions to Sarah Walker.
