Christmas is coming, and what DO you get for the person who has everything?
One band of women thinks there's a better way than buying more stuff.
"We all know that Christmas is every day in North America," one of the women said.
So this year, they're offering an alternative. An alternative gift fair.
"Gifts That Give," featuring 30 local, national and international nonprofits, allows shoppers to "buy" donations to charities in the names of people on their holiday lists.
Based on a fair last year in Harrisburg, Gifts That Give is "an alternative to the commercialism and stress of the holidays," Jenn Knepper said. It's "a way to find gifts that not only honor special people on your gift list but help others who are not on anyone's gift list," as the poster advertising the gift fair puts it.
Or, as one planner, Jennifer Fisher, explains: "This is basically like a live gift catalog," similar to the ones put out by Heifer International and World Vision.
The Saturday, Nov. 22, gift fair features donations — and some tangible items, like Bead for Life and Blue Bandana dog biscuits to benefit the Janus School — in all price ranges. Gifts range from $8 to buy a pillow and blanket for an orphaned child in Haiti through HOLD the Children to $600 to send a child with cancer to summer camp through Celebration for Life.
"We tried to get mom-and-pop nonprofits," Knepper said. "A lot of people don't really know the Threshold Foundation," which works with at-risk kids in Lancaster city, for instance.
Other nonprofits include Church World Service, Community Fresh Food Initiative, GOAL Project, Independent Church in India, the United Methodist Church's Lumina ministry and Pennies for Peace.
Shoppers can browse nonprofits' booths at the Farm & Home Center and choose gifts from a list. At checkout, each donor receives a card so his gift recipients know a contribution has been made in their names. Nonprofits also will be signing up volunteers during the fair.
"If you do present someone … with a gift card for a nonprofit, it opens their world also," said Andrea Sherman. "It's really a great way to whisper down the lane, so to speak, of all the nonprofits we have."
Knepper was inspired to begin organizing one locally after reading a newspaper story last year about the Harrisburg fair, sponsored by a group called the Ladies Half.
She began e-mailing her friends, many of whom signed up to help.
"Everybody wants to get on board with what she's doing," Fisher said, "because she has a great heart."
The core group has been meeting since January to pull together the gift fair and to make it a community event.
Last year, 18 nonprofits in Harrisburg raised $9,000 at the fair and another $11,000 in online donations after the event. Online giving also is an option for the Lancaster fair.
One of the planners, who asked that her name not be used so she doesn't take credit, noted that alternative gift fairs are becoming a national trend.
"What better gift," asked another planner, Deirdre Foley Citro, "than to change a life?"
Gifts That Give runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Farm & Home Center, 1383 Arcadia Road. Kids' activities, including games, crafts and readings of the book "Bethlehem Star" by author Christi Hoover Seidel, are featured. For information, call Knepper, 201-9157, or see www.theladieshalf.org/giftsthatgive.html.
Helen Colwell Adams is a Sunday News staff writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com.
