Ready, set, Swap & Shop downtown

Nine weeks, 40 booths, $100 prizes and an $11,000 goal.

Those are the numbers Swap & Shop organizers are dealing with as they get ready for this year’s first event Thursday, May 5.

Cherrine Wheeler, tasked with keeping track of raffle ticket sales and donations, likened the Thursday evening marketplace to a weekly citywide garage sale all on one block.

For nine weeks, from May 5 to June 30, vendors and shoppers will congregate in Smithville’s downtown courtyard, one group peddling their wares and the other hoping to find a bargain.

Last year Swap & Shop debuted as a fundraising effort sponsored by the Downtown Heritage Business District Association to build a public restroom downtown. This year the goal is the same, but there will be some payback for a select number of shoppers.

A raffle has been added at 7:30 p.m. each Thursday.

“If you are there and your name is drawn, you will receive $100,” Wheeler said.

But you don’t have to be present to win. If your name is drawn and you’re not on site, you will receive $50, and another drawing will decide who wins the remaining $50.

The name of anyone who makes a donation to the bathroom fund will be included on a plaque on the exterior of the future building.

“This is a chance for people to be a part of the history of this town,” Wheeler said.

Donations can be made at the Platte Valley Bank on Main Street.

Filling the booths

Margie Filger is coordinating booth rentals. As of Friday, April 29, half of the 40 total booths had been taken, some for a single night and some for Swap & Shop’s whole season.

There will vendors with food like popcorn and jerky, candles, glassware, flower arrangements, jewelry, wooden crafts, handbags and fresh-from-the-field produce.

Among the vendors will be the familiar faces of local store owners like Jean’s Flowers and Midwest Grills & BBQ Supplies.

Filger was a vendor last year and will be selling candles this year.

Finances aside, there is an educational benefit to having a booth at the market, she said, explaining that it’s a great way for a business to get its name out to the community.

And sellers get a different perspective on potential customers.

“It was a good way to see what people are buying,” Filger said.

Prospective vendors can still sign up for one of the Thursday evening sales.

Anyone interested in renting a booth should contact Filger at 620-687-3666. The cost is $10 per week.

Following the money

Money from booth rentals, raffle ticket sales and donations will all go toward the bathroom fund.

“We need a bathroom desperately,” Filger said.

Under the current proposal, if the community raises $20,000, the city would put forth $20,000 to hit the project’s estimated $40,000 cost.

Wheeler said $11,000 was the target amount to be raised through Swap & Shop and $9,000 was still needed.

The Chamber of Commerce has committed to helping with the community portion of the cost.

Filger said she hoped this would be the last year the Swap & Shop would need to raise money for the bathroom project, but it’s not because she wants the market to end. In the future, the market could benefit another worthy cause.

“It doesn’t have to be every year for the potties,” she said.