AGM: Alternative Gift Market
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Catch the true spirit of giving this holiday season! Mark your calendars & plan to attend a festive day of food, fun, music and convivial shopping at the 2008 ALTERNATIVE GIFT MARKET Saturday, Nov. 15th -- 9 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. First Lutheran Church, 1000 Third Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids, IA. Each November, local churches and non-profit groups host the Alternative Gift Market (AGM), a festive opportunity to purchase gifts that make a real difference in lives across the globe as well as in our own community. Want to join the AGM action? As a shopper, you will have a unique opportunity to purchase “gifts of giving” from a wide range of items -- trees, toys, computers, food, stoves, blankets, books, cows, clean water, mosquito netting, medical supplies – that will tickle the fancy of your favorite gift recipients while benefiting local, national and international charities. For example, you may buy a $5 share to support the Heifer Project or a $20 share to help build wheelchairs for people in Africa. With each purchase, you receive a gift card to send to your friends, relatives or colleagues letting those special people know that this gift has been purchased in their name... be it chickens, solar computers, trees... The SERRV Store and Catherine McCauley Center also offer gifts for sale, a delicious lunch is served between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and baked goods are available throughout the day. Bring friends & family & enjoy a giving market! In the meantime, check out the Alternative Gift Market catalog at: www.alternativegifts.org As a volunteer, you may enjoy joining the Jubilee Ministries Commission, the Outreach Ministries Committee, the SwaziCompanions, or youth groups from Christ Church to sponsor a table with an AGM item marketed on half the table and a local or church mission item featured on the other half. Market participants have fun designing the posters and props for their items, visiting with people as they staff the “booths” for a one or two hour shift on the day of the market, and helping with the mini-markets on weekends at church, so those who aren’t able to make the Alternative Gift Market are still able to participate. Interested in going to market? Contact Kate. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A bit of AGM history: Through Jubilee Ministries, Christ Church has been participating in the Alternative Gift Market when the market was being hosted by Kenwood Park Presbyterian Church. Christ Church hosted the market from 2001 to 2003, and have continued to co-sponsor the Alternative Gift Market as it has grown and grown requiring larger hosting sites: 2004 – 2006, Westminster Presbyterian Church and 2007 – 2008, First Lutheran Church. The markets each year from 1998 through 2007 raised $172,744 for international, national and local charities!
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2006 AGM booth featuring marketers for Swaziland: Paula Sanchini & Andy Pettifor. |
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