Heifer Club to present Living Gift Market
HOT SPRINGS VILLAGE — The Hot Springs Village Heifer Club will host its 18th annual Living Gift Market on Nov. 8 to benefit the work of Heifer International.
The event is free to the public and will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Coronado Center in Hot Springs Village. Animals from the Heifer Ranch will accentuate educational booths displaying the importance of animals to families in developing areas of the world. There will be fair-trade, international gift items and lunch available for purchase.
“Our niece came to the Heifer Ranch as a volunteer in 1988,” said Merrill Clark, one of the charter members of the Hot Springs Village Heifer Club.
“She told us that it was really a neat experience, so we just dropped in while coming back from a camping trip. We knew nothing about the organization and were so taken with it. We thought this was something we would really like to get involved in,” he said.
“The club started with a core group who knew about Heifer or were interested in it. At one time we had 30-plus members. Now our main event is the Living Gift Market,” he said.
The first Living Gift Market was held at Coronado Center in 1997, and raised $7,231 in donations. The following year, the event raised $18,413. Support for the club and for Heifer Interna- tional continued to grow over the years, averaging $30,000 to $40, o0o in donations with a record high of $45,000.
“It is such a natural option for grandparents shopping for grandkids,” Clark said.
The event promotes “alternative giving” — moving away from material gifts and giving a gift that supports efforts that can really change lives. Honor cards and animal cutouts are available to send to the recipients, along with information about the gifts and the communities that benefit from them.
Heifer International is a nonprofit, humanitarian agency dedicated to ending hunger and poverty and caring for the earth. Heifer provides livestock, trees, and seeds, and training in environmentally sound agriculture to communities in impoverished areas. Since its founding 70 years ago, Heifer has helped 20.7 million families out of poverty by providing them the tools to sustain themselves.