BY BRITTANY
HENLEY
NASHVILLE, Tenn. –
The annual Christmas Village shopping event reconvened this year from Nov.
11-13 at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in Nashville to sell items and work
with philanthropies benefiting thousands of people each year.
More
than 200 volunteers from the Vanderbilt University chapter of the Pi Beta Phi
Sorority held this event that has been going on for the past 55 years. All of
the proceeds from the ticket sales go to philanthropies like the Vanderbilt
Bill Wilkerson Center, which provides services and treatments for those with
hearing and speech disorders. The Mama Lere School for hearing loss and the Pi
Beta Phi Rehabilitation Institute are two other programs that benefit from the
event to help others through scholarships and physical therapy.
Ashley
Seth is the co-chair of Christmas Village, and she works directly with the
shoppers and merchants to make sure they both have a great experience. It is
really satisfying for her to help start traditions for families who come every
year, but the most meaningful thing for her is the philanthropic event.
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“A lot
of people know it is a great shopping event where they can come and get all of
their Christmas shopping done early and find really unique gifts, but a lot of
them don’t know that it’s for a great cause,” said Seth. “So, anytime they buy
a ticket, they are helping philanthropies.”
Last year, they raised more than $550,000 at the event,
which was a record-breaking year for them. Over the 55-year history, they have
raised more than $9.5 million for the causes they support. This year, the
overall goal is to break the $10 million mark.
Christmas Village is a great place to get early Christmas
shopping done while also helping out charities. A range of items such as women’s
clothing boutiques, food, toys and appliances can be found while shopping. They
have new, unique products and merchants coming in every year, and a lot of the
items are one-of-a-kind and can’t be found in a normal shopping mall.
Among many other vendors, Joan Beaver of Parrotsville,
Tenn., was there to display her booth once again for her third year. Her booth
displayed soft sculpture dolls and realistic drawings of popular colleges,
including Middle Tennessee State University.
“I
started coming to Christmas Village because my daughter was a Pi Beta Phi and
would volunteer here,” Beaver said. “She was living in Nashville during the
time, so I decided to come and create my own booth.”
Steven Bell from Franklin, Tenn., is another vendor who
has been displaying his booth for 10 years at Christmas Village. His booth
consisted of unique, quality pens made from interesting materials such as
leather, olive wood shipped in from Bethlehem, and real bullets. Bell’s family
had been coming to the shopping event annually before they got the idea to make
the unique pens.
“We
always try and source really interesting materials because we believe a pen is
not just a writing instrument—it’s a conversation piece,” said Bell.
For more information, and for those interested in coming
to the event next year, visit Christmas Village’s website at http://www.christmasvillage.org/.
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