Offering of love
Gifts: Try something different this year

Left to right: Ann Urbina, Andy Urbina, Betsy Windisch, and Arlene High have helped organize the Alternative Giving Fair & Café at the First United Methodist Church in Gallup, N.M. The event will be held Struday, December 1, 2007 from 9:00am-1:00pm. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — If you’re shopping for more “stuff” for friends and family members this holiday season, area stores and arts and crafts fairs have an endless supply of great goodies to buy.

But if you’re looking for something different — perhaps something for someone who already has more than enough “stuff” cluttering their house and their life — Saturday’s annual Alternative Giving Fair offers a way to give gifts to loved ones that help charitable organizations locally and internationally.

Sponsored by the Missions Committee of Gallup’s First United Methodist Church, the Alternative Giving Fair will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at the church, located at 1800 Red Rock Drive.

According to Andy Urbina, the chairman of the committee, a number of nonprofit organizations will have booths set up for holiday shoppers. They will provide cards that shoppers can give to loved ones signifying that a charitable donation has been made in their honor to that particular organization.

“They can donate in somebody’s name,” said Urbina, “that’s how it works.”

A few organizations will be selling items that benefit the organization’s charitable work. The church will be selling decorative wreaths and Christmas greens from the forests of Oregon and also religious books and gifts, another group will be selling handcrafted jewelry from Africa, and CARE 66 may be selling gift packs of the salsa it now produces.

Urbina said he is in the process of finalizing what organizations will have booths on Saturday. In previous years, the fair has attracted local organizations like Habitat for Humanity, the Community Pantry, Battered Families Services, the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, and the McKinley County Humane Society.

International charities have included organizations that support care for orphans in Ethiopia or the Ukraine, medical missions, and wildlife preservation. With a donation to the Heifer Project International, local residents can sponsor the purchase of farm animals — from chickens to cows — for needy families around the world.

“It’s an alternative way of giving Christmas gifts,” said Urbina. He added that it was also a good way for nonprofit organization to get more exposure in the local community.

The church will also be selling breakfast and lunch items during the fair with the proceeds going to support a local charity in Gallup. Menu items will include muffins and sweet rolls, posole, and red chile and green chile stew.

Information: Urbina, (505) 722-6912.