Alternative Gift Fair offers gift-giving options to help nonprofits

If you want to give gifts that make a difference in the world, the ninth annual Alternative Gift Fair is the place to do your shopping to benefit local, national and international charities.

The event runs from noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 5 at Community Unitarian Universalist Church, 2819 W. Sylvester St. in Pasco.

Visitors can meet representatives from the nonprofits which have established track records of helping people, animals and the environment and make donations in honor of family, friends, or colleagues.

In the last eight years, the fair has raised more than $130,000 for charities with last year’s event raising more than $17,000.

Gifts range from $5 and up. There are also crafts for the kids to make and live music to add to the holiday atmosphere.

Those who donate on behalf of friends, colleagues and relatives may choose to commemorate their good deeds with moderately-priced gift cards, which will be hand-lettered and personalized by local calligraphers.

Included in the more than 50 “gifts” are $5 for bagged lunches for youth at the Quest Youth Center, $30 for two gallons of paint for Elijah Family Homes, $50 for the cost of one eye surgery for Sunrise Rotary Ethiopia Vision Clinic Project, and $100 to sponsor a student through Pathways to Literacy.

The Benton-Franklin Master Gardener Foundation, first-time participants, will be raising money for its Build-a-Bed gardening drive. Donations will be used to build raised garden beds for low-income families so they can raise their own produce as one bed can produce about 100 pounds of food annually.

This year’s participants include: 3 Rivers Guild of Seattle Children’s Hospital, Benton-Franklin Master Gardener Foundation, Cork’s Place, Domestic Violence Services, Elijah Family Homes, Heifer International, My Friends Place, Pathways to Literacy, Planned Parenthood, Prevent Homeless Pets, Project Literacy, Quest Youth Center, Ethiopia Vision Clinic Project, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and Youth Suicide Prevention Program. Organizations from the Alliance for a Livable and Sustainable Community include Friends of Badger Mountain, Tapteal Greenway, Ridges to Rivers Open Space Network, e3 Washington, Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society, GoGreen TriCities, SEENetwork, Sustainable Living Center, 3 Rivers Bicycle Coalition, Benton-Franklin Co. Community Health Alliance and Friends of Mid-Columbia River Wildlife Refuges.

For more information about the groups participating in the Alternative Gift Fair and for directions to the church, visit www.communityuu.org. You can also view and print a shopping list of the offerings.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Alternative Gift Fair offers gift-giving options to help nonprofits."