Angel Gowan counted on the Penny Table ticket draw to attract a crowd at Saturday’s St. Paul’s Anglican Christmas Bazaar in Barrie.
She was not disappointed.
“It’s a cheap price; it’s $2 for an envelope that has 25 tickets,” said Gowan. “There’s so many things for everyone. The craft basket is always a huge one — $80 worth of crafts alone for this one item.”
The Penny Table allows people to buy an envelope and drop its tickets in various buckets with goodies at the table where Gowan sits and makes change, and the four tables behind her.
Visitors return the envelope to Gowan and she holds onto it for contact purposes, once the draw of winners is held.
“We call people (winners) if they are not still here,” she said. “Sometimes they stay and it’s very exciting. Everyone is standing around, hoping for their number to be picked. It’s very popular.”
“People come every year just for this,” said Dorothy King, of Innisfil.
Gowan’s parents, Edith and Allan Clements, ran the ticket draw for about 30 years before she took it on.
“We’re from Scarborough but had a cottage here all our lives. They moved up here when they retired in 1989 until they passed six years ago. I started helping them out as they got older, and when they both passed away, I took the whole thing over,” Gowan said.
“My mom always wanted to keep (the price) low for young children to be able to play.”
Saturday’s annual Christmas bazaar was nothing if not busy, on a grey, wet and somewhat cool day.
Everything from knitting, crafts, collectibles, coffee mugs, plates, games, stuffed animals, and glasses to Christmas lights and miniature trees could be bought for reasonable prices at the dozen or so tables set up inside the St. Paul’s Crescent church.
There were silent auctions and just about every make of baked goods.
“The baking is just flying out of here because nobody bakes anymore,” said Rev. Debbie Dennis.
St. Paul’s Anglican Christmas Bazaar is the church’s annual fundraiser.
Last year, it raised about $8,000 to help support the south-Barrie church.
