The 2nd Annual Toy Drive & Art Show is in the Books!

Let me start off my thanking all of you that were able to participate this last weekend in our 2nd annual toy drive and starving artists event. Your support makes all the hard work worth it!  Thank you! 

I host events like this because I feel it’s one of my life missions.  It is incredibly important for me to give back to my local community.  I didn’t come from money. We were the family that wouldn’t have had several Christmas’s without the kindness and generosity of others when i was a child. There were times a box of food on the doorstep fed our hungry bellies. Programs that helped heat our home so we weren’t cold. A surprise visit from a secret Santa with a Christmas tree and decorations. Last minute generosities that made it possible for us to wake up and experience the magic of Christmas morning. 

As a small business owner in a post-pandemic world, our future is unknown like so many of our peers. We struggle with turning out the work when there is a national “shortage” of skilled labor. Your overhead begins to far exceed what you’re able to produce in a timely manner. Yet you push on. You don’t give up hope for a breakthrough or a miracle. You loose sleep, bang your head, and hope the next day brings something better. I had dozens of reasons financially and health wise why I could have bowed out this year and why we shouldn’t host the annual starving artists event or toy drive. There is no financial profit for this event. We don’t charge the artists to set up. It’s up to them if they want to donate a small portion of their sales back to help us cover the cost of the additional fuel and electricity for the weekend. My time and skills in creating the graphics, videos and promoting is something I do because I want to, I enjoy it, and I would never ask for anything in return.  But I told myself this year that you don’t stop giving back, even if you can’t afford it. So i gave my time, my skills, and my overly obsessing micromanaging mind a release by creating these events to give others the opportunities myself and many of us never had. 

This year, ten Ohio artists filled up much of one of our shop areas. While some sold little to none, others sold a few hundred dollars worth of their work. But the community we created among one another is priceless. The variety of mediums ranged from photography to digital art, tattooing, paintings on canvas, and custom pinstriping, to dot and quill work, and others. Artists set up a 10x10 area and managed their own sales. The future leads, potential clients, and connections made were beautiful to see. We will host this event again, weather it’s at Kandi’s or a downtown location where we partner with another local business. My next goal is to work with local organizations to potentially host an evening farm market and artist event this summer in the Foundation Plaza on Main Street. 

From the generosity of others, we filled two giant boxes in our lobby with new and unwrapped gifts that will go to children within our own community.  An additional box will remain available to fill throughout this week. Drop in during our regular business hours if you’d like to donate a new and unwrapped gift. It truly makes me smile to see the generosity of others and how we can come together for those in need. 

Unfortunately, and due to the discrepancy of an ugly and slanderous rumor about our family friendly event, along with lack of communication and misconceptions, we did not have “naked ladies running around” this year and last year. Everyone was fully dressed at our event and all displayed art was social media acceptable. I’m beyond sad this caused such strife and confusion about the event and especially what it represents within our community. The rumor got incredibly out of hand. The emotional repercussions have taken quite a tole on me. We hope for a better understanding of what our future community events will bring. 

Thank you again to everyone that came out and supported local artists and families in need. 

Kandi Blaze McCrea

Owner/Manager