Every year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, an event is held in Marion under the name of “Small Business Saturday.” This year, the high school was scheduled to host a pop-up shop, but due to heavy snowfall on Nov. 29, the event was postponed to Dec. 5 during Marion’s annual Peppermint Walk. This has been a fan favorite tradition for many years, and there are hopes for what it could become in the future. One of the special education and TAP teachers here at the school, Kristine Dixon, helped set up the school’s participation in the event, under the name of the Big Red Supply Company.
According to Dixon, this is the first event that they have participated in. She said the planning for the company took about a year, including talks with the school board, community partners, and the owners of the old Maid-Rite building at 7th Ave. and 10th St. in Marion, who had also partnered with her and the program. Dixon reached out to all the students who attended months in advance of the event, allowing them time to prepare and accept or decline the offer. There were also booths run by school programs such as GIC and AMPED. Dixon said that she sold bracelets for $5 each, making roughly $250. Dixon expressed how she felt the event came along, having said, “This was our first ever market. It was, I think, a really great success.” Dixon also voiced that she thinks it can grow to be a community-based market that could be growing with new students attending, as well as encouraging people who would be interested in this to contact her. “There are so many ways that people could partner with this pop-up, and with it going on, one thing we would love to see would just be more the merrier, so reach out, so we can get connected and get the next day going,” she said. In addition to bracelets, Dixon sold baked goods, which quickly became popular as many visitors enjoyed hot chocolate during the Peppermint Walk.
Layla Dickson, sophomore, also attended the pop-up shop and shared her insight on the event. Dickson sold her original art pieces at the event. She’s been making these for most of her life; it was a big opportunity for her to get the offer. She sold posters of varying sizes for money. She explains, “So, my bigger paintings were between $20-$30. My ones that were a little bit smaller than that were between $15-$20, and then it went down to $5.” She also says that her total profit was around $90, a successful day. Dickson also comments that she saw some teachers and students who attend or work at the high school come to the event and purchase from the vendors set up by the school. It was a long process to make her art, and getting ready to sell everything. Dickson said, “I took a different amount of time on all of them, but I made them throughout the course of two weeks.” Throughout this process, though, she said it was very enjoyable and that she would do another when she has the chance.
Despite the rescheduled date, the event was highly successful for both the students and the school, and given that this was the school’s first-ever shop, it is likely to happen again. More events will be attended by Big Red Supply Company, supposedly in the next two quarters of school, according to Dickson. Although it had to be postponed due to the snow, Dixon believes that holding the event during the Peppermint Walk may have helped draw a larger crowd. “I think it was more successful, because Small Business Saturday is a huge event. But the sheer, just like excitement of Peppermint Walk and how busy that is, they’re confined in one spot, we couldn’t have asked for a better, really, position to be front center there,” Dixon said. She is also looking forward to more events, along with even more students participating in the near future.
