Annual Christmas Mart is Charity League’s bread and butter
Nov, 17-2009 10:53 am
By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
SOMERS POINT – When it comes to traditions, the annual Charity League Christmas Mart is one that can be counted on.
This weekend marks the 62nd year that the Charity League has been making homemade bread and handcrafts to raise money for charity.
“In 1947 the original members of Charity League created some handmade items and some baked goods and they offered them to friends out of a little storefront on the corner of Pennsylvania and Atlantic avenues in Atlantic City,” said Charity League President Sandra Perskie. “That was where the tradition of the Charity League Christmas Mart began.”
The money they raised was funneled to local charities the group supported. And so it is 62 years later.
The Christmas Mart is still the single largest fundraiser of the year for the Charity League, which supports a number of selected charities: the Atlantic City Day Nursery, Child Federation, Atlantic County Women’s Center, the Donnie Fund, Family Services Association, the Atlantic City Rescue Mission and the Covenant House.
The constant among those organizations is that they all offer a helping hand to women and children within the community. In 2008 Charity League provided the groups with more than $145,000.
What members do to raise all that money is a time-honored tradition: They bake all the breads and cookies for sale at the mart, and make a different sequined pin each year. The pins have become a must-have for thousands of women who collect them.
Perskie said that this year the members created 6,500 pins – and in keeping with tradition, the design will be a secret known only to members until it is released the first day of the Christmas Mart Friday, Nov. 20.
“It is really beautiful and will be one collectors will treasure,” she said.
More than half of the pins are presold, having been ordered a year ago when shoppers picked up the 2008 red poinsettia pin.
The price is still $20, as it has been for a number of years. Perskie said the league wants to keep the pin affordable.
The baking for the mart is in high gear this week as cooks around the county complete their offerings. Members use recipes that have been handed down through Charity League for years to churn out lemon tea breads, pumpkin bread, banana walnut, sour cream chocolate chip, coconut iced pound cake and more. Members have baked more than 1,300 breads and cakes.
“What is amazing, no matter which one we think will be the most in demand, every year another cake will sell out. It is hard to keep up to the demand, but we certainly do try,” Perskie said.
She and fellow member Lois Fee made more than 20 apple cakes recently, she said.
The Christmas Mart offers shoppers a wide selection of quality goods in one place: unique jewelry, watercolors, clothes, toys and much more.
Diane Miller and Gwen Murphy are in charge of the shops this year. They have tried to bring in vendors who are offering something different to blend with the others who are returning.
There are 22 shops, including newcomers Two Tin Crows, Gotta Have It, Kim Richmond Sweets, Pink and Blue Baby Boutique, Tres Bonne by Joan, and Virginia Camp watercolor and note cards.
“We really aspire to bring in new and exciting shops each year that will blend with some of our shops we continue to have year to year,” Miller said.
The Christmas Mart will be held 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 20 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21 at Greate Bay Country Club on Somers Point-Mays Landing Road in Somers Point.
Santa will leave the North Pole and be stationed at Greate Bay to visit with boys and girls – some of whom have mothers who looked forward to sharing their own lists with him at the mart when they were children.
The Pub Lounge and the Park Room will be open for lunch and dinner both days.
To comment on this story email
Marino@catamaranmedia.com.
