On Sunday, Nov. 10 Westside’s annual fall crafts fair was held at the high school. The crafts fair is an event held to support the Westside girls basketball team. This event is organized by Westside community member, Stacy McMahon, assisted learning instructor, and assistant girls varsity basketball coach, Jamie Davis and head girls varsity basketball coach, Steve Clark. According to Davis, the crafts fair is a good event to bring the community and outsiders into Westside, as well as helping the girls basketball team fund money for their team. 

“The craft fair is a fundraiser for the girls basketball program,” Davis said. “We make our money off of the booth rentals, so the vendors pay a [certain] booth rental fee and that money funds us. We also get money from admissions. It’s a great way to support our program and it’s fun for our community.” 

Davis said the crafts fair benefits the Westside community because it draws more attention to the school. 

“We even added additional parking [to the event] so people can look at Westside [and can see our school],” Davis said. “People can look at Westside even more and what we’re about.” 

According to Clark, it is cool to see people outside of a school setting inside of Westside. 

“[The event] draws people in from all over the city, not just in our Westside community,” Clark said. “We get a chance, outside of the school setting to communicate with them and see everybody in a different manner.” 

Clark said the girls basketball team also plays a role in setting up the event. 

“All of our basketball girls and parents help set up,” Clark said. “[They] give us a hand and make it easy for the vendors to sell all of their crafts.” 

Davis’s daughter, Kendyl Davis said she had a stand at the craft fair, and sees herself doing something like that as a career. 

“I’ve always [wanted] to make something and have it in the crafts fair,” Kendyl Davis said. “I like to take part in big things, because I like to be active, so I came up with a ‘smile kit’. At first it wasn’t good at all, but I kept updating it to make it better, for it to be ready to goat the Craft Fair.” 

Kendyl Davis said she hopes to continue making things that people can enjoy.

“I like [the fact] that kids can enjoy [the smile kits],” Kendyl Davis said. “Adults can enjoy them as well.” 

Sophomore Kaitlyn Hanna said she enjoys seeing all of the different creations at the crafts fair. 

“I love all of the different vendors,” Hanna said. “They all show their different personalities [through] what they like to do and make.” 

Hanna said she feels a duty to give back to the school, and thinks that the fall crafts fair is a good way to do it.

“I like the idea of giving back to the school, as this is going towards the girls basketball team,” Hanna said. “They do so much for us,I hope this event continues to grow.” 

Westside Elementary Excellence in Youth Curriculum Specialist, Jenny Henningsen said she thinks the craft fair is something nice towards the school. 

“[There’s many things I like about the craft fair] but [the thing I like the most is that the people] are here to support Westside,” Henningsen said. “It’s something really nice [for] the school. It’s also a really good event for secret ‘shopaholics’, like me, where there are a lot of crafts and cool things to buy.”