Houston’s popular Serendipity Craft Sale is going online this year due to Covid and the sale won’t be hosted by the Houston Public Library as is usually the case.
With the pandemic still looming and ensuring social distancing measures are kept in place, the Houston Public Library had to make the difficult decision of not hosting their popular craft sale. The library announced this decision through their Facebook page last month.
“I looked into every possible way; but with the Covid restrictions and only 50 people allowed to gather and everything, it is really not that simple so unfortunately we won’t be able to host the sale this year,” said Library Director Sara Lewis.
However, a local, Tarey Walles, who had participated in the sale last year, decided to take charge and host the event online instead.
“This is my second year in town, I did the sale last year and it was a lot of fun and when Covid hit, I just thought that this is something the community works towards the whole year and everybody has such a good time so I found a way to pivot and decided to run the online event,” said Walles.
Walles has created a Facebook group called ‘Serendipity Online Houston’ and anyone wanting to be a vendor or looking to browse through things to buy locally, can request access to the group.
“We are just doing everything online and the event will be from Nov. 12 to Nov. 19.,” she said adding that there won’t be any fee for vendors to participate in this online event as there won’t be any overhead costs to take care of.
There will however be some rules that vendors would have to follow such as, they can post a maximum of three posts a day including one live video showing all their mechandise. Vendors are also being asked to keep their posts short and ensure they have a nice photo to go with their post to make the post visually appealing. The event will also have a spin the wheel draw for free gifts towards the end of the event and vendors are hence asked to keep track of all their customers’ names.
The online event will be open to vendors from Houston, Topley and Granisle but customers can come from everywhere.
In the past, the Serendipity Craft Sale, which is usually hosted at the Houston mall, has been very popular in the district. Last year, the library hosted 52 vendors, 68 selling tables and 1,563 people during the event.
“I hope this helps keeps Houston strong and upbeat during this craziness that we all are facing,” said Walles.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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