Service League Arts & Crafts Show makes a happy return | News

NEW BUFFALO — The New Buffalo Service League’s annual Arts & Crafts Show took a year off in 2020 due to the pandemic, but it returned Saturday, Oct. 16, in the gyms at the New Buffalo High School/Middle School with a mix of familiar and fresh vendors offering everything from goat milk soaps and freshly made bread to yarn dolls and custom-made jewelry.

“We’re going strong this year, back to trying to get all the money we can for scholarships for our children,” said Service League President Nita Murray.

Proceeds of the show are dedicated to the Mary Ann Frey Scholarship Fund which provides scholarship awards to area high school seniors each year in memory of the 1962 NBHS Valedictorian, who died in an automobile accident. There also is an Irene Brinkman Honorary Scholarship named after a long-time Service League member. The 2021 recipients from New Buffalo High School were: Konstantine Bauer, Sophia DeOliveira, Emma Lantz and Abigail Vitale.

“It’s exciting, seeing people and almost all of the vendors came back, and we have a lot of new ones,” said Paula Dudiak. A total of 98 vendors filled the middle/high school’s two gymnasiums.

Dudiak also thanked the New Buffalo Area Schools for again hosting the event.

Joan Putzke said she has been a New Buffalo Service League Arts & Crafts Show vendor since 1987, “and I’ve done it every year.”

“I think people are glad to be out again,” she said. “I love this day because you get too see people that you don’t run into in town.”

A team of Service League members also re-assembled to make a fresh batch of the show’s renowned apple slices.

Liz Rettig said they put together 20 pans of the slices (representing six half bushes of apples) at St. Mary’s in Three Oaks, and NBAS Food Service workers baked them at the school in time for showtime on Oct. 16.

By 10:30 a.m. the apple slices were already almost half-way sold out.

“I always tell people come before noon,” she said, later adding “It’s very nice to be back, and the people are very glad that we’re back and that we have the apple slices again.”

Also available in the cafeteria were other home-baked goods and a luncheon menu.

Causes supported by the Service League over the years have included: the New Buffalo Halloween Parade; the Blossomland Learning Center; New Buffalo Sports Inc.; New Buffalo Post Prom; the Michiana Humane Society; New Buffalo Rocket Football; and the Berrien County Cancer Service.

The Service League was founded in 1948 as the New Buffalo Junior Women’s Club (the current moniker was adopted in 1964). For more information on the non-profit organization, call (269) 231-5084.