The Crusader Trade/Craft Sales and Scholastic Book Fairs have created much excitement at F. G. Miller High School over the past 24 years. It is a great deal of work with a big payoff – for our community and especially our school. Proceeds from exhibitor table rentals all go back to our school and distributed to areas like our science program, physical education program, home economics program, and graduation just to name a few. 100% of the profit from our Scholastic Book Fair is returned to our Library Learning Commons in the form of books, prizes and materials.

An event this big takes many hands to organize and implement – and it is wonderful to see everyone working together to make it the best it can be. We have so many people to thank (and we hope we didn’t miss anyone…if we did – please accept our apologies and thanks!).

Setup – Table movers Hayden Ludlage, Cameron Garnett-Bennett, Cody Fairbairn and Mr. Randall, plus all the students from physical education classes who helped to set up the tables and chairs (a great real-life math experience). Book Fair setup thanks go to Mr. Kobewka, Mrs. Bykowsky, Zoe Ainsworth, Mrs. Loughran and Mrs. Bjorkman. A special thanks to our physical education students, Mr. Randall, Mr. Younghans and Mr. Bjorkman for putting all the tables and chairs back after the event for us. Mr. Kobewka worked wonders with a shovel to clear the way for our exhibitors who used the gym doors to bring in their product much to their delight!

Our character actors really made the day special with excellent performances as Santa Claus (you know who you are), The Grinch (Zoe Ainsworth and Elisha Sears), Clifford the Big Red Dog (Ethan Hampson, Avery Smereka, Casey Urquhart, Nathaniel Cousins) and helpers Shaylyn Klatt and Rylee Verenka. Special thanks to Double D Photography (Mrs. Dewan, Mrs. Pindroch and helpers) for taking pictures of Santa and the Grinch! All proceeds from the photo sales help to support programming at Elk Point Elementary! Families were very impressed with the speed of picture delivery – you were amazing elves!

Our ever popular Professor Richer’s Crazy Crusader Critter Zoo, was organized by our enthusiastic Mrs. Richer who shares her critters and her love of all creatures each year. Our Critter Patrol and animal experts this year were: Andrew Richer, Darianna Boorse, Elisha Sears, Maia Caraulia, Dae Smereka, Tino Braga, Stephanie Jacula, Zander Warner, Brittany Walton and Jewellee Inscho with animal movers/tree decorators Rhianna Bjorkman, Mykaela Verenka and Jessica McQuinn. With all their help, we have entertained and educated all those who entered Room 1! Thanks Mrs. Oracheski for allowing us to invade your space again this year.

Our Scholastic Book Fair generated $3758.11 in sales which translates into $293.00 in free books and $776.63 in cash for our Learning Commons. Our book sellers: Miss Trotchie, Mrs. Berlinguette, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. E. Bjorkman were all hands on deck and did an excellent job keeping our many customers happy and buying. Congratulations to Chloe Campbell and Nathaniel Cousins who both received $25 in free product from the fair.

We didn’t have a clown, but we traded up for two fabulous performers – Miss Wild and Mr. Stint (aka Rose Fire and Rumplestiltspin) who not only did two workshops one on hoola hoops (it’s harder than you think) and circus basics, but also performed an awe inspiring LED hoop and baton show in our darkened Common Area and wandered amongst the crowd all day. Kids of all ages learned the basics and had fun. Special thanks to the BPOE Elks Lodge #460 and the Town of Elk Point Recreation Department for sponsoring our performers this year. We had no stage, but Mr. Krys was an amazing one man show (thanks for suggesting the concept) in our Common Area giving us the perfect café setting for our shoppers to eat, visit and listen to his accordion renditions of Christmas classics and Ukrainian carols, plus a multitude of hits from many music genres.

Our PUP group once again hosted the Holiday Gift Shop geared to shoppers from 5-12. Many hands helped to set up the secret shop in Room 4. Thanks Mrs. Petruk for your space and your help. With the leadership of Mrs. Phillips and the help of Mrs. Bower-Gagne, Miss Kryzanowski, Miss Wild, Mr. Stint and the mathematical skills of Mr. Braga, the PUP group set up their pop-up shop. The venture didn’t generate much profit for their programming, but the joy and the shopping experience for the kids was well worth the day! Our PUP clerks/helpers for the day included: Rachel Zacharuk, Megan Phillips, Samantha Urquhart, Ethan Hampson, Zoe Ainsworth, Zea Garnett-Bennett, Kylie Young, and Casey Urquhart with the help of former Crusaders Kelsey Phillips and Jordan Schell.

Our exhibitors with their products and artistic creations are the backbone of the event and each and every year they amaze us with their tables. We had 36 exhibitors who we hoped had as good a day as we had sharing our gym! We look forward to seeing you again next year on the last Saturday of November for our big 25th Anniversary Event! Special thanks to all of you for sharing your talent and expertise with us – you made our day!

Thanks to our Wapiti chefs, Duane and Colleen, we had hot food and treats throughout the day from pancakes and sausage in the morning to perogy plates and chili in the afternoon. They always give up their Saturday to add to the atmosphere at our event and we are so thankful for that.

Mrs. Loughran was lead on the Craft Sale side of the event and did a tremendous job organizing the setup, collecting money, fielding calls and taking care of things in-between. Mrs. Bjorkman, involved for each of the 24 years, was lead on promotion, entertainment, book fair and the other in-betweens! Without all these people (and those others behind the scenes that are too numerous to mention), this event would not be possible.

Special thanks to Mrs. Brooker and Mrs. Colbourne for joining us and promoting our event in the newspaper and social media, the Town of Elk Point for promoting us in the water bill mail outs and their website and all those who shared our event on social media. So, to those who helped this year, and those who shopped and experienced our event – THANK YOU for helping to make FG the place to be the last Saturday in November each year!

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