South Huron's First Youth Makers Market Attracted A Lot Of Buyers and Sellers This Past Weekend
by Bob Montgomery
A lot of buyers and sellers were drawn to South Huron's inaugural Youth Makers Market in Exeter last Saturday.
South Huron's Community Relations Manager, Stacey Jeffery, was the organizer of the Youth Makers Market. She explains the goal of the market was to provide young people with the opportunity to be creative as entrepreneurs and hopefully encourage them to become successful business owners. Jeffery says the entrepreneurs ranged from six to fourteen years of age and they were very happy to see some six and seven year-old people come out as well as some thirteen and fourteen year-olds participate. Altogether they had fifteen young people who represented six businesses.
The majority of items for sale were hand made by the young entrepreneurs. “Some of the vendors had home products, so spices and teas and aromatherapy rollers. Others did plants, dog treats, dog accessories, fire starters, customized plant kits and body scrubs and lotions. It was truly amazing to see the hand made products and the quality of products that the youth produced.”
Jeffery says they were too busy to actually get a count of how many people were there shopping but she estimates between 50 and 75 people were there. One of the highlights for her was watching the transition from some of the young people who are a little nervous at the beginning of the market and eventually just got involved in what they were doing and forget to be nervous. Now they're really looking forward to having another Youth Makers Market. One extra bit of icing on the cake was after the market each one of the vendors was offered one of three options for a promotional item and one of the vendors has already ordered business cards.
Avery & Hanna – ‘Unique Craftables’ offering a personalized craft kit.
Photo courtesy of Municipality of South Huron
Nash & Max – ‘Fire Sparks’ offering scented natural fire starters made from beeswax, lint and wood shavings.
Photo courtesy of the Municipality of South Huron
