Students showcase artwork at Ferguson Township Elementary holiday craft sale

Creativity starts early for students at Ferguson Township Elementary School.

On Saturday, the school hosted its annual PTO Holiday Craft Fair that featured 22 student vendors.

Parent Teacher Organization committee chairwoman Sharon Musser said the event has been a school tradition for at least 10 years.

“We put a lot of work into it and so do the kids,” she said.

Past and former students were able to make and sell handmade crafts.

“We try to keep the prices under $5 so they’re cheap, but cute gifts for the holidays,” Musser said, who has two students in the school.

Crafts included origami art, tag blankets, pillows, heat logs, hand-knit winter accessories, jewelry boxes and ornaments.

“They get really excited because they finally get to show off what they’ve been working on,” Musser said.

Brothers Ezra, 14, a high school freshman, and Zachary Raupach-Learn, a Penn State freshman engineering student, have been participating since they were students at Ferguson Township Elementary.

One makes spray-paint artwork, and the other makes handmade wooden cutting boards.

“It’s pretty unique,” Musser said. “They’re a talented couple of guys and have been doing this every year.”

The Boy Scouts also sold food and drinks, the proceeds from which will benefit the pack.

And the fair just so happened to also tie into some class curriculum.

Kindergarteners learn about coin money, while some older students learn more about money values.

“It puts the things they learn in school to use when they sell their crafts,” Musser said.

The planning process to organize the fair started a few months ago.

Musser said vendor application fliers were handed out to students in October. Then other fliers were posted around the Centre Region, and emails were sent to school and community members about the fair.

Musser said it annually attracts about 150 people, though the foot traffic is hit-and-miss.

“In my first year, we had a hard time because the Junior Woman’s (Club of State College) also did its craft fair that day,” she said. “In the next year, it was snowed out. But we hold it this time of year every year, and do our best.”

Musser has been a PTO member for four years.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 12:39 AM with the headline "Students showcase artwork at Ferguson Township Elementary holiday craft sale."