Crafts Teach Students the Business of Business

Student Erica Estrada, left, shows Karen Steen, Heritage High School principal, some of the baked goods for sale on Thursday at the “Simply Bazaar” event in Rogers.
Student Erica Estrada, left, shows Karen Steen, Heritage High School principal, some of the baked goods for sale on Thursday at the “Simply Bazaar” event in Rogers.

— Learning took the form of a craft bazaar at The Annex on Thursday afternoon.

Tables were piled with handcrafted goods, and the smell of funnel cakes wafted through the room. Twin brothers Juan and Carlos Valladares, both seniors at Crossroads Alternative School, badgered classmates to buy one of the 39 microwaveable neckwarmers they and a third business partner sewed and filled with rice. They sold $129 worth before the school bazaar started.

At A Glance

Grant Supports Bazaar

The Simply Bazaar project was paid for by a $750 grant from Economics Arkansas. Goals for the project were to teach students about free enterprise, their own human capital in developing skills, how to create a budget, to use recycled goods and to establish community connections. From the grant, an estimated $400 was available for student loans while $250 paid for transportation to local craft fairs and $100 bought instructional materials.

Source: Staff Report

“Our plan is to clear the table,” Carlos Valladares said.

Senior Vanessa Parker usually favors markers or pencils for her art. Thursday she spent the afternoon painting faces, wearing a hat, tail and her own face painted like her mascot, the “paint-splashed wolf.”

“Facepainting, it can be a professional thing,” said the aspiring tattoo artist.

She estimated she spent $45 in face paints and charged from $4 for a little paint to $10 for an entire face. As part of her research for Thursday’s bazaar she visited a craft fair where a helpful face painter showed her the right paints to use. Cheap paints are goopy, Parker said.

Students at Crossroads and at extended day and therapeutic day classes at The Annex joined in the Simply Bazaar show, said Linda Haley, counseling director. Crossroads students learned about free market concepts and took a field trip to a craft fair in preparation ,and an online business class was available for a half-credit. Some students took startup loans through an Economics Arkansas grant. Once those are repaid, they will fund the program for next year, Haley said.

Each student was encouraged to have 10 types of items. Forms distributed to students asked them to figure costs.

Seniors Percela Velasco and Manuel Hernandez tied together brightly-colored candy canes, made up candy sleds and had a selection of handmade bows.

“We tried our best to make different little things,” Velasco said.

She estimated if they sold out, they would have a $40 profit to buy Christmas gifts for their son.

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Economics Arkansas works with kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers to build economically literate students. For more information, visit www.economicsarkans….

Juniors Ellie Kampfer and Logan Salter estimate they purchased $75 in material — hot chocolate mix, chocolate chips, marshmallows, candy canes and decorations — for their 44 Rudolph cocoa bags. Family members came together to make up the bags and decorate them, and there is leftover cocoa at home, Kampfer said.

“It's more the experience,” Salter said, than it was about making money.

Sophomore McKensie Collins said she learned about supply and demand, but that can be hard since she hasn’t had a booth like this before.

“Next year, we will be ready with exactly what people want,” Collins said.

Years ago the school had an annual bazaar event, said Principal Cindy Ford. Creating products for the bazaar has helped build student confidence, and Ford hopes some will be able to sell their wares locally even after the school show is over.

“The students have realized that they have some talents that were untapped,” Ford said.

Some students, like sophomore Matthew Moore, were taking orders.

He demonstrated his origami skills by taking a loose knot at the end of a half-inch strip of paper, wrapping the paper around it, tucking a loose end and pinching out a Christmas star.

Mom April Moore said she expected to see maybe 10 or 12 students displaying their wares, not 42 tables, some with several students staffing them.

“It's a lot more than I imagined,” she said.

Haley said she arranged for the grant to help students learn to do for themselves. Whatever profit they earn they keep. The American dream can get a little tarnished sometimes, Haley said.

“You can make it in this market. You can make it in the American dream,” she said.

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