StarNewsDaily.com – Week of November 3, 2011 – Vol.4, No. 33 – FREE
Let the Festivities Begin
Fairgrounds Event Offers Affordable Gifts While Supporting Local Artisans by Patricia Pihl Star Staff Writer
“Skip the Mall” is an often-heard refrain among those who wish to support local businesses and offer alternatives to busy, congested shopping centers. Holiday shoppers can accomplish both as well as find unique gifts by attending the first annual Holiday Craft and Gift Show on November 12. The event takes place at the Ag & Expo Building on the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds in Dunkirk. Event coordinator Shelly Odebralski of Blessings Everywhere Studio in Forestville says 50 vendors will participate in the show and except for a few, all are from Chautauqua County. “Our theme is shop local, support local.” Odebralski says shoppers will find one of a kind articles that aren’t found in stores, noting that 85% to 90% are handmade and handcrafted items. Some of these items include poured candles, bath teas, baked goods, Christmas ornaments, beach glass jewelry, hand painted glassware, kitchen towels, specialty dips, hard candy, stocking stuffers, Mary Kay, and Tastefully Simple products, yard and garden accessories and snowman decorating kits. She adds “we are trying to keep the price point for handmade gifts or goodies at affordable prices - most under $20.” On the higher end of the scale, the oak creations of Randy Good of
The work of artisans from across Chautauqua County will be for sale at the Holiday Craft and Gift Show on November 11 at the Chautauqua County Fairgrounds. Featured above are hand painted items from Blessings Everywhere Studio and Gift Shop in Forestville.
Papa’s Shop in Forestville will also be for sale, including wine and coat racks, gun cabinets, stepping stools and trunks. Another featured artisan makes hats and mittens from used sweaters and fleece, a technique referred to among crafters as “upcycling.” Emphasizing the shop locally theme, Odebralski says, “Many of these crafters are local people who create
items on their own kitchen tables. If enough people come out and support it, we will do it again next year.” The event will also include a crafting corner where kids will be able to design and paint their own Christmas ornament, under Odebralski’s direction, to take home and hang on their own tree or give as a gift. For those who work or anyone attending later in the day, she says, “there will
be no early tear-downs.” Food will be provided by the Silver Creek Grapestompers, with sales to benefit 4-H. The Holiday Craft and Gift Show takes place from 10 a.m-6 p.m. For more information, interested persons call contact Shelly Odebralski at (716) 965-2956. or email blessingseverwhere@yahoo.com.
Go and Vote!
The first Tuesday after the first Monday in Nov. is here By Mallory Diefenbach Star News Writer
It’s voting time in Chautauqua County, and we’ve got a comprehensive list of candidates on page 3. Where, though, does our modern day electoral system stem from? In America, voting is considered a right of every citizen. However, it wasn’t always that way. The voting we know and take granted for today has come a long way since its first conception. The invention of voting dates back to the Athenian city state, but the modern republic we function under today is accredited to the Roman era. The Roman system itself was simple. Each man was given a clay tablet when voting upon a law. On the tablet simply put was a yes and a no. If the Roman citizen approved of the law he would drop a “yes” into a box. If he didn’t, a “no” would be dropped. When voting for a political figure, each man would be given a tablet with all the names of those who were running. All a man had to do was make a mark against the name who he wished to vote for. However, it is pivotal to know only men could vote and the whole voting system was based on class. As Claudia J. Beresford explains in her article “Roman Voting Assemblies, the Structure of Government in Ancient Rome,” while each man was able to vote, it was done in groups.
The lower a person’s status, the less say they ended up having. This was because there are more people in the lower levels of society than the upper
levels, so their votes counted for less. The idea of a democracy wouldn’t be considered again until the French
Revolution. It wouldn’t be put into practice until the American colonies accepted it as a form of government. Even then, the American voting process had to go through a lot of before it would be recognized as fair towards everyone. In the first draft of the American Constitution, only men with land could vote. By 1850, almost all men could vote. In 1860, the 15th Amendment gave any man the ability to vote regardless of race, religion or color of his skin. In 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, giving women the ability to vote. The 24th Amendment in 1964 banned the poll tax. In 1971 the 26th Amendment is passed, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18. This is because 18-year-olds could be sent off to war but could not elect the President of the United States. A lot of people over the ages fought for equal voting rights for all. To them voting wasn’t a natural right, it was a privilege they had to fight to earn. And that what voting is; a privilege. A responsibility. Americans have died for our ability to vote so the common man can have a voice in the government. Those who don’t vote don’t have a say in how things are run. So on Election Day go vote for your favorite candidate because every vote counts. Your vote makes all the difference.
Inside This Week
Home for the Holidays Special Insert
Highschool Playoffs see Sports
Flavor of the Week see Entertainment