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Christmas was in the air at Canyon Falls Middle School (CFMS) on Saturday morning.
Speakers belted out holiday tunes, while shoppers sought neat trinkets and gifts for loved ones, as even Santa Claus paid a visit at the Kelowna Winter Market.
For Patty Glover, the market's organizer, it was the first time the market was done at CFMS.
"We did an outdoor spring market last year that was highly successful, and a lot of our vendors from the spring market came back for the Winter one today."
The market's goal is to help support the community, with all funds raised going towards school initiatives to improve the learning outcomes of all students at the school.
"This year we are raising money for silk screening equipment for our art department and a kitchen brigade food competition program for our foods program," said Glover. "We also contribute a large amount of money to our library, for books, as well as audio equipment."
In addition to the Market, there was a raffle-led food bank drive that brought about hundreds of pounds of non-perishables.
Paul Bennett, a teacher at CFMS, runs the school's enrichment class, taking place every Wednesday morning.
"The enrichment class is called 'Help' and part of our initiative was to help different organizations around town," said Bennett. "This year, we focused on the food bank, so we created a food drive and this has been all student created."
"They came up with the idea of having some raffle prizes, so they went out to different companies around town and we presented our ideas to them and they were generous enough to provide us with products to create an incentive to donate."
Among the many businesses include Tommy Guns, Cyclepath, Dominos and Cobia Beauty.
"It is nice to see the kids understand that the community has needs and then they are reaching out to address them."
Another portion of the enrichment program was an entrepreneurship class. Laura Glover, who is in Grade 7, constructed her own business called Valley Wear, in which she creates 3D printed earrings.
It was her sixth market that she has sold items and said proudly that her "pineapple earrings usually sell out."
Patty Glover added that it was "absolutely incredible to see the community come together to support the school, student entrepreneurs and food bank."
The hope in the next Winter Market is to make it even bigger and better than ever.
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