Center City Saturday in Downtown Springfield

Join members of First Friday Art Walk for a fun, free, family-friendly holiday-themed event, 1-5 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Downtown Arts District. If you’ve never experienced Art Walk, this is your chance to find out what all the excitement’s about!Center City Saturday features live art demonstrations, giveaways, holiday open houses, kids’ crafts, holiday refreshments, raffles and more. Start out with lunch at one of our incredible downtown restaurants, spend the day visiting Art Walk galleries, then head to Jordan Valley Park for the Festival of Lights Kickoff and Lighting of the Mayor’s Christmas Tree, followed by Fireworks at Hammons Field.
Here are the highlights:
· Bodhi Salon and Spa, 431 S. Jefferson, Ste. 106, presents its Holiday Open House! Enjoy holiday cookies and 20 percent off all gift certificates. For each gift certificate purchased, the client will be entered in a raffle for a Bodhi gift basket valued at over $300. Kids can enjoy face & body painting, hair styles and polish, while mom or dad indulges in a complimentary chair massage. Plus, don’t miss Motley Achromatic, a show of photography by Ike Wever, Bodhi’s featured artist for November.
· Fitzwilly’s Gifts & Antiques, 308 South Ave., features the Art of Hailey Patten through November and will have free holiday coloring pages for kids to take home.
· Fresh Gallery, located at the southwest corner of Campbell and Walnut, will hold its holiday open house during Center City Saturday. Enjoy live painting demonstrations and view the art of Featured Artists Angel Nahon and Ann Marie Rausch, plus works by 20 other regional artists.
· Global Fayre, 324 S Campbell, features handcrafted, fairly traded art objects, clothing and more from around the world. Each child who stops by between 1 and 5 p.m. Nov. 21 will receive a free, handcrafted bobblehead animal from Mexico. Offer good while supplies last!
· Good Girl Art Gallery, 325 E. Walnut St., Ste. 101, invites visitors to enjoy holiday refreshments, personalized Christmas ornaments and the work of Artist Kristin Sholtis in her show, Rustworthy, Tales in Assemblage …
· Park Central Branch Library will host a free Holiday Movie Marathon on the big screen.
· Randy Bacon Photography and Figment Art Gallery in the Monarch Art Factory, 600 W. College St., presents two special events: Enjoy free refreshments and see the CASA Kid’s Display, featuring original artwork by local children, which was used to create this year’s CASA greeting cards, and Woodblock Paintings by Charles Lederer in celebration of 100 Years of Casper’s Chili, founded by Charles’ father Casper.
· Springfield Hot Glass Studio, 314 S. Campbell Ave., a working hot glass studio/gallery with facilities for furnace, torch and kiln work, presents live glassblowing demonstrations by glass master Terry Bloodworth and crew.
· Springfield Pottery, 416 S. Campbell Ave., presents a special Holiday Ornament miniMake. Come play in the clay between 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21. For a small fee of $10, you will be guided through the miniMake project, and Springfield Pottery will have it fired and ready to pick up in 14 days. Please allow 20 to 30 minutes to complete your miniMake project!

Soup of Success; empowerment through cookies

Being a Fair Trade retailer, most of our products come from producer groups in developing countries.

However, we do support a couple of domestic projects; Soup of Success is one of these. Here’s how SOS describes itself:

3-mix cookie basket

The Soup Of Success Job & Life Skills Training Program is a not-for-profit, faith- and community-based program comprised of five main facets. Support Groups, Educational Modules, Career counselling, Mentoring & Hands-On job skills training in a small gourmet food business are all combined into an intensive five month program designed to assist local women who are dealing with difficult life situations to move forward and make positive changes in their life and career.

SOS is designed specifically for women who are struggling to get off of, or avoid having to go onto, public assistance. The participants in this program all have the desire and motivation to improve their situations and strive toward self-sufficiency.  They want to better their lives and that of their children.

SOS is based in Elkhart, IN, and with it’s parent group, Chruch Community Services assists more than 16,000 families each year.

Global Fayre has stocked SOS products (which are DELICIOUS by the way!) ever since we first started at a Farmers Market in Springfield, MO in the Spring of 2007. Their story, of empowering women to develop the skills they need for self-sufficiency, really resonates with our customers. It is also very in synch with the stories of the many producer groups that we purchase from. This is not about ‘just’ giving, it’s not about charity – it’s about helping people help themselves.

Our customers really appreciate that giving someone a gift of a cookie mix is a double gift; a gift to the recipient, of course, but a life-changing gift to the women who signed the cookie mix at SOS.