Gift fairs offer a trip down the road less traveled

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2007

Gift fairs offer a trip down the road less traveled

Holiday shoppers find alternatives to the traditional and commercial

by Mike Meno | Staff Writer

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Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette

During Saturday’s Alternative Gift Fair at the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, Beth Duffin (left) of Threshold Services, a Silver Spring outreach organization for the county’s homeless and mentally ill, plays with Comet, a dog up for adoption through the Prince George’s County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as SPCA volunteer Christina Ng holds his leash.

Crowds of holiday shoppers looking for something different came out Saturday in Takoma Park to attend an alternative gift fair, where they could make a charitable donation for people on their gift list instead of buying them more traditional presents.

Sponsored by Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington, an all-volunteer organization, the fair brought 16 local, national and international charities to Takoma Park Presbyterian Church.

Gift options ranged from $5 to $89 and included everything from sponsoring a class in silversmithing for at-risk teens to paying for a rat to be trained in landmine detection.

‘‘I love the idea,” said Silver Spring resident Miriam Yarmolinsky. ‘‘I hate consumerism ... and I love the way you can benefit people rather than buy crap that will end up in a landfill.”

Organizers advertised the fair as providing a ‘‘green” alternative to traditional holiday shopping.

Every penny of the shoppers’ donations went to their charities, said organizer Gina Duffin.

A wide range of causes was represented by the fair’s nonprofit organizations.

Threshold Services, a Montgomery County outreach organization for the homeless and mentally ill, offered several sponsorships, including a day of meals for Threshold clients and employment counseling.

Damia Jackson said she began volunteering with Threshold Services after graduating from the University of Maryland in May. ‘‘This is my opportunity to get involved in the community and offer my services,” she said.

Across the room, Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team, an international relief organization, offered planting trees in Haiti, clothing a Mongolian orphan or buying part of a maternity kit for a woman in the African nation Burkina Faso.

AMURT’s executive director, Peter Sage, in his third year at the festival, said most people come already sold on the idea of giving a donation instead of buying a traditional gift.

‘‘They pretty much know what they want, and then I ask them if they have any questions,” he said.

Sage said the shoppers he talked to were just as interested in the international causes as the local ones.

‘‘Three people have been interested in Haiti because it’s a failed state,” he said. ‘‘I think people come here and have very much of a global consciousness.”

Washington, D.C., resident Laurel Jacobsen walked out of the fair Saturday with gift cards describing the gifts she had purchased for several of her family members.

‘‘I think it’s a really good way for people to find out about all the good causes going on right in their back yard,” she said.

alternativegift fairs

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church, 3215 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi

2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Franklin’s Brewpub, 5123 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville