Christmas gift ideas at LPOHS

SANDPOINT — As the Thanksgiving holiday comes and goes, the Christmas shopping season begins.

Lake Pend Oreille High School is once again hosting a Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair on Dec. 8, which started last year to give last-minute shoppers some gift ideas. It is also an opportunity to see the school and meet the students, said Randy Wilhelm, career-technical education instructor.

“But also, it’s a big fundraiser to help with this trip,” Wilhelm said, referring to a Washington, D.C. trip some of the students will be going on in June 2020.

Around eight to 10 students will be going to Washington, D.C. and New York, where they will visit places such as the White House and Smithsonian, and will have the opportunity to see a Broadway play among other sites. As Wilhelm put it , they will be doing “a bunch of cool stuff.” So far they have raised about a quarter of $16,000 needed, but still have a ways to go.

To help with fundraising, students will have a booth set up at the fair where they will be selling artwork and handmade pottery by Leata Judd, a local artist and long-time volunteer in Wilhelm’s art class. Prints of gorilla and panda artwork done by two LPOHS students will be for sale, as well as packages of handmade ornaments.

There will be about a dozen vendors, including local farmers market vendors with handmade soaps, succulents and other gift ideas. Farmers market vendor and LPOHS science teacher Brenda Woodward will be there with her homemade jam.

Rand Rosecrans’ culinary arts class at LPOHS will be selling chowder or chili with bread bowls, as well as hot chocolate and soda.

“And we’ll have a gift wrapping station if people want to pay to have their gifts wrapped,” Wilhelm said.

The fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Dec. 8, in the LPOHS gym. The gym is tucked away behind the school, on the opposite end of the lawn from the green house.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.