Alternative Gifts focus on giving
By: Madeleine Johnson
If it’s hard to shop for someone who has everything, the Mission and Outreach Commission at the Community Presbyterian Church of the Sand Hills has a suggestion.
The Sand Hills Road church will hold its annual alternative gift market on Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. According to Phyllis Richardson, the project’s market coordinator, this unusual shopping experience will feature eight decorated booths that have been set up in the church’s social room.
Each booth will represent an organization that is working to help make someone’s Christmas and the rest of the year a little brighter.
"You make donations to Alternative Gifts International and they use that money to help people all over the world," Ms. Richardson said. "They’re mainly self-help projects that teach people how to boost themselves up in the world."
Some of the projects included in this year’s gift market are Milk for Preschoolers in Gaza, which will provide milk and healthy snacks to the children of Gaza while offering their parents an education in nutrition; Single Moms Step Forward, which will help single mothers receive an education and vocational training; Microenterprises for Untouchables, which helps women in Nepal’s lowest caste start their own businesses so they can support their families; and the Heifer Project.
"The Heifer Project gives a pregnant, working animal to someone who needs it, like a goat for giving milk or an oxen to plough the fields," Ms. Richardson said. "The agreement is that the people who got the animal will give the offspring to someone else."
Once someone donates money to a cause, he or she can pick out a Christmas card to give as a gift. The card will detail how the money will be spent either as a flat rate contribution to the organization, buying a specific item for someone in need or contributing a certain amount of money for a specified length of time and explain that the contribution was made in the gift recipient’s honor.
"This is a really meaningful gift that says ‘I care enough about you to give you this gift that will help,’ " Ms. Richardson said. "People who receive these things, in my experience, are just delighted."
Ten Thousand Villages will also have a booth set up at the gift market, since some people want to give their loved ones something tangible. In the past, hand-made wooden boxes, purses, jewelry, fragrant soaps, toys and more have been on sale, with the proceeds going right back to the artisan who created each item.
All eight of the stands at the market will be manned by members of the Sand Hills congregation. These volunteers have learned about each of the charities they will represent in order to best garner interest for and explain what the charity will do to help those in need.
"Each project is exhibited by two people," Ms. Richardson said. "They set up some sort of exhibit to encourage people to ‘invest’ in their project. They try to display their project in the most exciting and intriguing way, and they might have little ornaments that you can take."
Mirim Randall will be one of the women tending to the Community-Based Ecology booth.
"For $15, you can buy gardening tools and help children of Haiti learn about the environment," she said.
Ms. Randall said she has not only been a part of the Alternative Gift Market since its inception, but also involved with the same organization every year.
"It’s a meaningful way to help out other countries," she said.
Since there are more than two dozen people promoting eight different services, Ms. Richardson has invoked the spirit of friendly competition by keeping track of how many donations, or shares, have been made to each of the eight organizations.
"I keep a tally board of how many shares of something has been sold and how much money has been made," she said. "It’s like a little tiny competition, which kind of makes it more interesting."
Of course, when an event’s purpose is to help those less fortunate, everyone wins in the end.
"Our mission in life is to help others," Ms. Richardson said. "This is giving in the true spirit of Christmas."

