My Table of Hard Work

My table was set up for the final time this past weekend for Crafty Affaire.  It was a fantastic event and I haven’t many books left.  What’s interesting about doing events like these is you get to know the other vendors as you are there all day or all weekend.  After your table is set up you tend to wander around and have a look at things before the doors open to the public.  You have the opportunity to talk to the other vendors, ask how their other shows are doing and, if you like what they make and want their product, you can buy before the public gets a chance to see it!

After getting my table set up for Crafty Affaire I was chatting with Stephanie who makes super cute hair clips and calls herself Cutie Pie Clippies.  This was our second event together as we met at Creative Finds (another very well organized event).   I happen to mention I was suppose to be in another show next weekend.  Her response shocked me.  She said, “Your next event isn’t with Donna Passmore is it?” and I said, “Yes, why?”  Oh what she said next just frosted my socks.  She told me that the event had been canceled.  Insert giant “What’s???” and a huge “OMG” and even a “Holy Shit!”  I looked at this lovely girl and said, “Wow, sure nice of her to inform me given I live in Coquitlam.”  Coquitlam is an hour’s drive from White Rock’s Elgin Hall where the event, A Crescent Beach Christmas was scheduled.  I was utterly dumbfounded.  This event was suppose to help raise money for some fund called The Farmland Defence League.

What bothers me isn’t that this event is canceled.  Quite frankly, I have hardly have any books left to sell so I am a bit relieved.  I knew that in order to do the Crescent Beach Christmas and represent myself well I was going to be busy making a lot of new journals this coming week.  I no longer have to do this.  What bothers me is the blatant disregard for the vendors who agreed and PAID to participate in not only this show in White Rock, but the other events scheduled for Ladner and Langley as well.  All of these events were put on by Donna Passmore to raise money and awareness for her Farmland Defence League.

Now you would think someone, who is so passionate about the farmland in this Province would care enough about not only raising money and awareness for her cause but she wouldn’t want to PISS OFF the very people who could have helped her.  We, the people of the British Columbia who paid our hard earned money to participate in her show(s) for what we thought was a good cause are now out of pocket and let down.  Not only that but we “crafters” make our products with our own two hands.  It takes time, effort and creativity.  It costs us money and often because it’s not labeled as made in China people can’t figure out why it’s costs what it does.  These items are not mass produced.  Every card that is stuffed in an envelope and marked with a price was likely done by one person. Every tag representing our name was attached by one person and that is after we, that one person has made each and every item on that table he or she was planning to set up.  Time was invested, lots and lots of time and effort.  We are proud of our efforts.

Now, after the first scheduled event was to take place it was noticed that nothing was ready.  There had been few emails and the show was literally canceled before their very eyes.  Apparently, Ms. Passmore was upset that she disappointed the vendors and, as such, emailed a few people (not me) to express her side and cancel the rest of the events.  Her email read as follows:

Good evening, folks -

I’m cancelling the rest of the shows. Everyone who has paid in advance will get their money back. It is going to take about 6 weeks to get everyone paid.

I feel I owe everyone an explanation. This project was created as a fundraising program for an organization called the Farmland Defence League, who’s name is self-explanatory. This province is losing farmland at a staggering rate – and a huge amount of it in the name of “international trade”.  I thought this would be a good program to raise a few dollars for the campaigns and to promote local producers – and diminish our reliance on trade.

It was the first year and I made a number of miscalculations. I started late – not realizing that most of these are all set up and vendors booked by June. Then the municipal elections came and farmland was a leading issue in numerous communities around the province. I totally dropped the ball on these markets during the elections, trying to identify and then let voters know what the local issues were and who the genuinely pro-farmland candidates were.

The first market was immediately after the elections and it wasn’t what I had wanted. I felt I let the vendors down and even before the doors opened I told vendors I would refund their money. I totally dropped the ball – and I probably should have cancelled everything at that point. There were a number of relatively modest (on an individual basis) consequences that have just snowballed.

But one of the vendors was furious, and she has spent the last 2.5 weeks emailing everyone she could identify as being involved with any of the shows, emailing the facilities. She has not communicated with me, but has attacked my character and made allegations that have been devastating. I got home tonight to the news that the Fort Langley Community Hall has cancelled.

I grew up in Fort Langley and my family started the antique industry and heritage marketing in that town in the 70s. My family’s antique auction started in that hall in 1972, 20 years we hosted an auction that raised the money to rewire the hall and 2 years ago the hall hosted a reunion of 400 of my junior highschool that I organized. I am shattered, but I understand the unhappy woman has flooded them with phone calls and emails and threats against them for letting me use the hall. As hurt as I am that they have cancelled, and as disappointed as I am that they told others before me, I understand their simply not wanting to deal with these phone calls and emails.

I didn’t talk about what was going on because I didn’t want to perpetuate the negativity. I no longer have any hope of turning it around and I feel I owe you the truth.

And, as one of the vendors today pointed out, the community that this project was created to support haven’t even come out to support it. I wont get into the specifics of that except to acknowledge the truth of that statement.

The Farmland Defence League doesn’t have the funds, but i will make sure every person gets every cent they have paid. I’m paying everyone out of my own pocket,  so it will take me a few weeks. I am highly motivated. This is a nightmare that I won’t be able to put behind me until every dime is repaid. A couple of people are in serious financial situations and they will be paid first.

I want to apologize for having let you down. I passionately believe in what you do and that economic and ecological ills of this province can be resolved in good part by switching our consumer spending from junk from China to the artists and entrepreneurs of this province.

I’m so sorry I let you down. It’s the last thing in the world I wanted to do.

Donna

Screen shot because I knew this would be deleted

There WAS an events page created for the Crescent Beach Christmas but after I wrote on the wall saying that I had heard the event was canceled and asked for more information I received notification from Facebook this morning the event was canceled.  At least Facebook let’s people know events created on their “pages” are canceled.

**Since writing this blog a few of the “jilted” vendors are scrambling to arrange an event at Elgin Hall for this same day (December 10th) as many vendors have lots of stock made for A Crescent Beach Christmas.  Should you wish to be a part of it, please contact Amanda clawfootspa@gmail.com.  I wish you all a very successful event as that would make a very nice ending to this story! ***