The Bazaar is over. Our team loved the event and wants to do it again. We only had eleven vendors and everyone sold something. The Bazaar was not a massive financial success, but it was an emotional and unity building success. We have only one vendor complaining that the event was a giant waste of time. He lost money and resented being asked to contribute to the total expenses. At the moment he is bad-mouthing the event.
No one promised him anything. He knew and understood that since this was the first time we will learn some things and doubt it will be financial success. All but our one detractor are novices to sales and just thrilled that anyone would want anything they made.
Barb makes absolutely beautiful Afghan’s in the most contemporary colors. She sold two and was walking on air. Our big winner of the day was the baker who made a great variety of loaf breads. She made 24 and sold everyone of them. As usual, I brought too much of everything so lost money even though I made more money than I ever have at one of these events. I do have leads on four people who may possibly want some portraits. If this happens, I will be the big winner and actually make money for the very first time. Three are looking at having portraits done of their grandkids and they each have three. One is a single drawing. Just to get my name out there and begin making a name for myself my special offer was for headshots unmated and unframed for $100. It’s cheap but better than nothing. One of the resident’s daughters came along to help me get on EBay. I have been encouraged to do it before, but a bit nervous. There are parts of the Internet that make me nervous. If she successfully gets me going, I plan to double my prices to $200 for an 8-10 headshot. Prices go up from there. Hope it works before my hand begins to shake so bad I can no longer draw.
We are getting together as a group next week to evaluate the whole bazaar experience, make plans and recommendations. The best idea so far is to try and rent the church that two of us attend. Four times as much space, easier to find, less emotional stress and by opening it to artisans from the church we would have younger bodies to help set things up. It may also help draw people to the church (side benefit and selling point).
Working with management here was exhausting. Neither of the two people making decisions about what we can and cannot do came by to check it out. We learned that they thought our desire to decorate and hang some Christmas lights was a waste of time. They could at least have come by to see how beautiful their ugly room was.
I’m just a bitter old man. It is annoying to have to fight for everything we get. They have no concept that we are customers and not inmates. They are not the least bit interested in helping us enjoy life. They are pulling out their van for the first time in over a year to take us out for a meal next Monday. It has space for two wheelchairs. One of our residents can only be taken places in that van. He is too heavy for any personal vehicles and cannot transfer to a car seat anyway. Big boy! We almost had to send around one of the boys to break some arms to get this concession. They removed the position of activities director so we took over that responsibility but they would not give us any financial assistance because we were not employees. They stopped providing anything they had always done – coffee for coffee breaks, cakes for birthday parties, basic supplies for monthly potlucks, the van for a monthly outing or even to go shopping for groceries. We have only had the van for about a year. It was donated by a community organization and has sat unmoved for a year. Great use of resources! We are loved.
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