Rain doesn’t hinder Berry market
♦ Approximately 80 vendors participate in the market with a wide variety of products.
If the light rain Saturday morning impacted the crowd at the Berry Spring Market you couldn’t tell by the steady line of traffic heading from U.S. 27 to the Clara Bowl. Umbrellas brushing umbrellas as the crowd milled up and down the rows of vendors near the historic Ford buildings on the Berry campus.
Rome businessman Jim Bojo was headed back to his car with a couple of huge ferns and lifted them, as if lifting weights, as he shouted, “$10! Not bad.”
Hassan Niblett II of Calhoun had a booth, LXX x VII, selling T- shirts with the message of people being forgiven.
“I’m not worried about the rain, the message is the most important thing,” Niblett said.
Close to 80 vendors participated in the market with a wide variety of products. The Berry College Student Enterprises Program, a collective of student-run businesses, hosted the event.
Davis Clark, a junior at Berry from Macon and general manager of the Viking Furniture, said he got involved with the program as a means of finding work on campus. Within two months he worked his way up to general manager.
“Berry has a lot of cool opportunities. I never knew I could run my own business,” Clark said. He said the students take orders and complete the project within a couple of weeks.
“We tell everybody we’re students first,” Clark said. He explained they make about $90 on each Adirondack chair.
The Berry Angus Beef Enterprise was selling beef and burgers during the market. Andrew Roelle, a sophomore from Hamilton, Ohio, was flipping burgers on the grill Saturday. He’s an animal science major who explained that he came to Berry specifically for the opportunity to learn how to manage a business related to the cattle industry.
The market also included a lot of community vendors from across the Northwest Georgia region, even Eric Knutsen, originally from New Hampshire, a sophomore at Shorter University who was selling candied pecans and pralines and fudge.
“My business is called Sweets on a Mission,” he said. The proceeds from his booth help defray the expense of mission trips. He met his wife on a mission trip in Knoxville, Tennessee, several years ago and moved South to marry her.
Attractions for children included a bouncy house, the Easter bunny, handson science experiments and face painting. The market also featured live music and Angus beef hamburger plates.
“The Berry Enterprises are delighted to be hosting our largest market yet,” said Laura Combs, Enterprise Program marketing team lead in a press release. “This event provides a platform for fun, creativity and community.”