The United Methodist Women of Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Church will sponsor the annual Fall Festival Annual Arts, Crafts and Book event from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4.
It will mark the 46th year for the popular autumn gathering in Hurricane.
Crafters and vendors, with a wide variety of merchandise, including dolls; jewelry; unusual and hand-crafted wood items; one-of-kind specialty bags; unique fabric and tole- painted gifts and more, will be available for holiday shopping opportunities.
Baked goods, candies, the "famous" Forrest Burdette hot dogs, barbecues and drinks will be offered for purchase, as well.
Spokesman Karen Lilly of Hurricane has been a part of the yearly event since its inception.
"About 1970, at that time, we were meeting every other week to do arts and crafts among our United Methodist Women's group. We formed a group for young mothers in the church back then. Then we'd have the fall bazaar and have a turkey dinner with it. Down through the years, we have had construction. We've built new sanctuaries twice since that time, and now we're in the process of building a Family Life Center," Lilly said.
"As it progressed, we decided that we could probably do just as well if we would invite vendors and other crafters. They paid $20 for the booth space; we offer chairs and they bring their own tables."
While hot dogs and barbecues will again be offered in the festival's onsite country store, the turkey dinner has been trimmed from this year's event.
"Over the years," Lilly said, "the turkey dinner was switched until maybe a week later. This year, we're not able to have the turkey dinner because of the construction of Family Life Center. We're going to be in transition, because, in the new facility, we're starting to remodel our kitchen. Since the timeline isn't quite certain, we decided to do just the craft show this year."
Lilly said this year's festival will have 38 vendor spaces, due to space constraints, in the Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Fellowship Hall and narthex. "We hope to be in our gymnasium this year, but we're not sure we will be by Nov. 4."
She said the taste treats and gift and decorating ideas are perennially popular, but so are the book bargains at the festival.
"People donate the books. Hardbacks are a dollar each and paperbacks are 50 cents. Sometimes, we'll just say fill up a paper bag for $5. That's a big money-making thing for us, since all of the books are donated."
Proceeds from the festival help the Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Women support local, state and world mission projects.
"We support district and conference projects, which include the House of the Carpenter and the Scott's Run Settlement House," Lilly said. "For the last several years, we've allotted $2,000 for Haiti mission trips. Two ladies in our congregation go on medical mission trips to Haiti. They go twice a year -- in fact, they just went on one this week. We give them $1,000 each trip to purchase medicine and what they need. We also donate to Samaritan's Purse.
"For the past year and a half, we've been raising funds to purchase new equipment for the renovated kitchen facilities for the new Family Life Center. The church has a very active children's outreach with day-care and latchkey programs. The new Family Life Center will accommodate those children's programs much better than the facilities we have now. They will all have their own area to be in, so we're excited about that," Lilly said.
Forrest Burdette Memorial United Methodist Church is located at 2848 Putnam Ave. in Hurricane. For directions to the church, visit the website, www.forrestburdette.com.
For additional information about the fall festival, contact Karen Lilly at 304-562-9241.
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