The Christmas Shoppe

Description

This is the 12th annual "The Christmas Shoppe". This artisan event is held on the first Saturday of December from 8:00 to 6:00 at Western Hills Church in Bellevue.  Each year we donate 100% back to the Backpack Buddy Program at Gower Elementary School and Pegram Elementary School.  This program provides our local needy children who are on the free lunch program at school, a full backpack each Friday.  These backpacks are filled with healthy snacks in order to provide them nutrition on the weekends.  It is surprising, according to the administration of the two schools that we sponsor, how many children actually go without food on the weekends, or have very limited food. A true mission field is in our own back yard. 

Western Hills Church, 7565 Charlotte Pike, Nashville, Tennessee, 37209, has worked with Gower and Pegram Elementary Schools backpack buddy program for six years, filling numerous backpacks each Friday for children in need. It has been a very successful operation. Our church is dedicated to making this an ongoing service.  Our members at church continuously bring goodies such as cracker packages, fruit cups, chicken salad packs, tuna packs, etc. to church each Sunday but we wanted to make a bigger impact.  This is why we created " The Christmas Shoppe".  

The Christmas Shoppe is a festive artisan event with over 40 vendor booths showing and selling their fascinating hand crafted goods such as embroidery, handcrafted jewelry, woodwork, glass art, paintings, Christmas decor, handmade furniture, handmade soaps, knives, honey and many many more local handcrafted artisans.  The booth fees go directly towards the backpack buddy program.  Continuing a new tradition, our vendors have donated products to the silent auction.  These goods, along with local donations, will raise additional funds for the children. We also fill large stockings for these needy children for the holidays.