Scrooge Lives craft festival will debut with 51 vendors on Tuesday

As the weather turns soggy and cold, it’s time for winter coats and boots, cozy hats and scarves and gloves. And in the case of MHCC, it’s time for “Scrooge Lives,” the annual craft festival held during the first week of December.

Scrooge will offer an abundance of handmade items including candles, soaps, ornaments, bamboo clothing, bird feeders, wood turned bowls, pottery, jewelry and hair accessories.

Scrooge will take place Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Union.

ASG bookkeeper Mary Burlingame, responsible for much of the planning concerning for “Scrooge Lives,” said, “This year I top out at the all-time highest (number of vendors), with 51. In the past years we’ve had between 35 and 38, but this year I’m literally turning people down,” she said.

“The more vendors I get, and I get their $40 for the two days they are here, the more of these lovely little $5-off coupons we can give students. All the money we make from the vendors goes to taking these coupons and buying them back from the vendors so students can all take benefit of it,” Burlingame said.

There are 300 coupons available for each day of “Scrooge Lives” that are worth $5 each. “Every penny we make goes into those. It’s nice because with a student, if you have an $11 pair of earrings, you can get $5 off. That’s a gift they can afford,” she said.

To get a coupon, students must have a current student ID. The coupons will be available at the front desk of the Student Union during the event, and the coupons are one per day, per student.

Burlingame said “Scrooge Lives” gives people from the community the opportunity to see what type of place MHCC is.

“One of the things I hear the most from them (the vendors) is that they love the interaction with the students,” she said.

“There is a guy who restores stringed instruments. There is another man who sells all bamboo clothing. There’s a lot of people that are doing what they called up-cycled crafts. I’ve had people take bike inner tubes and do stuff with them, that kind of thing. A lot of jewelry, that kind of typical crafty stuff, and everything they sell they have to handmake,” she said.

The process of applying to “Scrooge Lives” involves an application process and a jury process; the jury is composed of Burlingame, a student and another college employee. “We go through it and do a yes-no-maybe on it,” she said. “My juries usually know that I like to be a capitalist and give as many people a chance to be in as I can.”

Both days, from noon to 1 p.m. will incorporate the “First Thursday” concert series. MHCC alumnus Shawn Schlogel, will be playing solo holiday piano music to offer students musical accompaniment as they shop.

“I always try to have people that work here, or are students here, so we’ll actually have actually more of those employees and students than I’ve seen before, as vendors.” Burlingame said. “It’s nice to have the flavor of ‘Scrooge Lives’ perpetuate what Mt. Hood is like for people. I want to think that the people who come in as vendors and aren’t as familiar, walk away with a sense of what the school is like.”