Moab Area Real Estate Magazine is published by AJM Media, LLC P.O. Box 1328, Moab, UT 84532 (303) 817-7569 andrewmirrington@gmail.com
Top: WabiSabi has organized a free community Thanksgiving meal in Moab every year for more than two decades. [Photo by Kurt Gregory]
Bottom: Young players with the Beacon Afterschool Strings program perform during a previous Moab Arts Holiday Craft Fair while shoppers browse the handcrafted goods of vendors. [Photo by Scott Rogers]
Magazine front cover: Community members attend a previous WabiSabi Thanksgiving Dinner. [Photo by Finny Hill]
SERVING MOAB
After getting its start as an early agricultural and mining area, Moab is now well known as a gateway to iconic adventure. This visually striking desert region is the place we call home. At Summit Sotheby's International Realty, we don't just sell real estate; we're your neighbors, your fellow adventurers exploring the trails, marveling at sunsets and cherishing every unique quirk that makes Moab enchanting. Our dedication to this town runs deep – whether lending a hand at local events, supporting neighborhood causes, or simply sharing our love for this place, we're here to give back and keep our community thriving.
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A day of giving and receiving”
WabiSabi welcomes everyone to its annual community Thanksgiving meal
Written by Sharon Sullivan | Photos by Kurt Gregory
Isaiah Flint will be the first person to arrive and the last to leave Moab’s Grand Center on Thanksgiving Day, when community members of all stripes come together each year to share a holiday meal organized by the nonprofit WabiSabi organization.
It’s long been a mission of mine, feeding people,” says Flint, who volunteered for a dozen years as a sous chef for the community meal before assuming the role as head chef for this year’s event. Ken Moody, owner of Moab Private Chef, had previously overseen the cooking of the Thanksgiving dinner for many years.
The Thanksgiving community meal is not only for those who face food insecurity – although that was the prime motivation when the event
was founded in 1999. The event has since grown to become a communitywide get-together where people of all ages and walks of life sit down together to dine, converse, play cards, and hang out.
The atmosphere is festive with harvest-themed décor and rows of tables covered with tablecloths and set with candles. Individuals, couples, and families come and it’s not unusual to find an unhoused individual sitting next to a local government official.
Isaiah Flint, left, will be the head chef for this year’s Thanksgiving dinner, after many years as sous chef to the event’s longtime chef, Ken Moody, right. [Courtesy photo]
“Whole families attend, including my own,” says Flint, whose daughter, ex-wife, mother and siblings will all be there. He takes a break when his family arrives and sits down to join them for the meal . “As soon as we open my work is mostly done – until clean up time,” says Flint.
WabiSabi has organized the annual event for the past 24 years. Last year its staff and volunteers served 400 meals at the Grand Center. An additional 341 meals were either delivered to essential workers, or picked up at the Care Center by people who prefer to eat at home, said WabiSabi Executive Director Leah Bear. WabiSabi expects to serve up to 850 meals this year.
While people are welcome to request a meal for take-out, Bear says dining in-person at the Grand Center is fun and a good way to enjoy the spirit and diversity of the Moab community.
Among those who get their meals delivered are First Responders and Moab Regional Hospital
employees working on the holiday. Senior Center residents, plus staff and clients at Seekhaven Family Crisis and Resource Center also have meals delivered to them that day. “We want to make sure everybody has access to a Thanksgiving meal,” Bear says.
Flint has been planning the meal for months, designing the menu, reviewing recipes, ordering supplies. He starts prepping some foods the Monday prior to Thanksgiving Day, and arrives early on Thursday with a volunteer crew to have everything ready by noon when the first guests begin to arrive. The roasted turkey will already be sliced, vegetables cut and potatoes peeled for quick assembly and reheating Thursday morning. The mashed potatoes will be cooked that morning along with the gravy. Salads and sauces are put into bowls and the buffet is set up with friendly volunteers serving up the feast.
A separate table offers desserts, many of which are donated by Sweet Cravings Bakery and Bistro in
[Courtesy photo]
Moab, whose former owner Cinda Culton began donating desserts for the annual event many years ago. Jacklyn Marcus, who purchased Sweet Cravings from Culton in 2022, is carrying on the tradition.
Last year’s Thanksgiving community meal was the first in-person event after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Sweet Cravings stepped up in 2022 to prepare the Thanksgiving meals that were delivered to those who were working that day.
This year, Sweet Cravings is donating 400 desserts, including fudge brownies and toffee graham bars, says Marcus. Any leftover pies at the bakery not sold the day before Thanksgiving will also be donated to the community meal. Those could include pumpkin, pecan, coconut cream, or German chocolate, she says.
Bonjour Bakery and Café and parishioners from the Church of Latter-Day Saints have donated pies and other desserts in past years.
Live music during dinner
While conversations buzz throughout the dining room, in the background live music is performed by longtime volunteer and piano player Dave Seibert. Diners can expect to hear oldies such as “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” as well as a collection of patriotic songs, gospel tunes, hymns, and classical songs, says Seibert.
“I’ve always shared my music,” he says. “God gave me the gift to share; I have to do that.”
Another longtime volunteer, accordion player Mike Tonninelli, will also be performing that day.
“There’s so much happiness, joy, people meeting each other, talking,” Seibert says. “You see the whole spectrum of society, from the homeless to bankers.” Even people with plenty of money come to enjoy the atmosphere, the camaraderie, he says. “It’s the biggest coming together event of Moab.”
Ben Trievel, 39, is unhoused and works as a maintenance worker at a local hotel. After living on the road for many years, two years ago he parked his van in Moab – where he’d been coming for years to climb and hike. He attended last year’s community meal, as both a guest and a volunteer, and plans to do so again this year.
“It’s a very positive thing for the community,” says Trievel. “It’s good to give back. It’s a day of receiving and giving.”
[Courtesy photo]
Trievel says he enjoys the variety of people who come. Last year he says he floated around, sitting with hiking friends, coworkers, WabiSabi staff, as well as people he didn’t know.
“It’s a neat place to hang out when you don’t have family close by,” says Trievel, whose family resides in Pennsylvania. “It’s nice not to be alone on the holidays, and it’s good food. It’s awesome, people are smiling and happy.”
WabiSabi puts on the annual community meal with the help of 100 or so volunteers, who commit to twohour time slots – although many stay and work all day, says Bear. Servers and dishwashers are needed, as well as people to take out the trash, assist in the kitchen, bus tables, run errands, and help with cleanup. Some volunteers return every year. Bear recalls one volunteer proudly proclaiming being the “lead dishwasher for eight years.” Another volunteer boasted of making the mashed potatoes for five consecutive years.
Especially for people who are unhoused, it’s nice to be inside with friends that day, says Bear. There’s lots of talking and mingling. People are familiar with one another. Plus, new friendships are formed.
Bear estimates the cost for this year’s event to be around $15,000. The Synergy Company in Moab has given a $5,000 grant to go toward expenses. WabiSabi raises additional funds via donations from individuals and businesses. Village Market in Moab is donating nearly 800 beverages – an assortment of sparkling waters and sodas. Bonjour Bakery and Café is donating all the coffee.
WabiSabi would not be able to host this event without its invaluable crew of volunteers. Anyone interested in volunteering that day can sign up via WabiSabi’s Facebook page.
The Community meal is from noon to 5 p.m. –or whenever the food runs out. The Grand Center is located at 182 N. 500 West. n
Longtime volunteer and piano player Dave Seibert plays music during a previous WabiSabi Thanksgiving meal.
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Gifts with heart, made by hand
Moab Arts Holiday Craft Fair features unique, handcrafted items
Written by Sharon Sullivan
OOne of the lovely fragrances people notice when they enter one of the rooms at the Moab Arts Holiday Craft Fair is beeswax. Candlemaker Joan Gaunt describes it as a “natural connection to nature.”
Different beeswaxes vary in scent depending on what plants the honey bees are pollinating, says Gaunt, who purchases her triple-filtered beeswax from beekeepers in Iowa and Colorado. One is made from bees pollinating alfalfa, while the other comes from flowers. Gaunt says she melts and mixes the two types, producing a sweet scent and rich, golden color.
Gaunt’s Honey G Candles will be one of the 40 vendors offering a wide array of handmade items at the fair, Friday, December 6, from 4-8 p.m., and Saturday, December 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
She has 60 different molds from which she makes her beeswax candles. You’ll find candles in the shapes of Christmas trees, pinecones, leaves, stars, owls and chickens – a shape that kids especially love, Gaunt says. She also makes regular taper candles. Gaunt started out making candles 10 years ago as gifts for her friends.
Top: [Photo by Scott Rogers] Bottom: Candlemaker Joan Gaunt will be among the 40 vendors at this year’s Moab Arts Holiday Craft Fair. [Courtesy photos]
“I do it for the joy, and the smile on people’s faces,” she says. “I love Moab, and I love going to the show. It’s a fun time of year.”
She learned of the holiday craft fair through her friend Shelley Smith, of Moab, who has been a vendor there for the past dozen years. Gaunt, who lives in Arizona, visits Moab often and one year added her candles to Smith’s table, and “sold a ton,” she says. So, last year, Gaunt applied for her own booth.
In addition to being a great opportunity to find unique, handmade gifts, the annual craft fair is a lively, social event where vendors and shoppers bump into people they haven’t seen all year, say many of the participants. While the majority of artists/artisans are from Moab, vendors also come from Boulder, Utah; Monticello; Salt Lake City; as well as Bedrock and Crested Butte, Colorado.
Handknitted treasures
Shelley Smith, who describes herself as a “compulsive knitter,” sells hand-knitted accessories at the fair. She makes hats, headbands, cowls, shawls, fingerless mittens, and lots of baby apparel – booties, sweaters, mittens, hats, and “other snuggly things.” Smith also makes jewelry – which is available at Gallery Moab, a cooperative artists gallery at 59 S. Main, #1.
Smith finds time to do a little shopping of her own while being a vendor at the fair. She loves finding unique and locally crafted gifts for her grown children and grandchildren, who live out-of-state – items she says are “reminiscent of Moab.”
She’s not the only knitter there that weekend selling handcrafted items. Cathy O’Connor and Rosie Boone are sisters who own Desert Thread, a yarn and supplies shop they opened 19 years ago at 29 E. Center St. O’Connor and Boone knit and
Moab’s Shelley Smith, who makes an array of handknitted items, has been a vendor at the craft fair for the past dozen years. [Courtesy photos]
felt a variety of items each year for the fair, including hats, scarves, shawls, felted ornaments, and pin cushions. “This year we’ll also have mittens, bunny toys, and felted koozies,” says O’Connor.
The sisters first introduced their Desert Thread business as a holiday craft fair vendor in 2006. They opened the physical shop later that month. They’ve continued to participate as a vendor nearly every year. “It’s just a fun event,” says O’Connor. “You see a lot of locals you don’t normally see.”
“I do most of my Christmas shopping there. There’s always a good selection of jewelry, handmade pottery, funky stuff. It’s a tradition. It’s a social event too, and fun. It’s neat to see what other people make.”
While their shop in town will be open on the Saturday of the craft fair, Desert Thread will be closed temporarily for in-person shopping, starting in December while the building’s new owner renovates the space. However, Desert Thread will continue its online sales via its website. They expect the physical shop to reopen in the spring.
Boone and O’Connor continuously knit up samples of their yarn and sell those items in their shop, plus, they knit items specifically for the fair, for which they often create their own designs, says O’Connor.
Top: Cathy O’Connor, pictured, and her sister Rosie Boone, are makers of knitted and felted items, and are the longtime owners of Moab’s Desert Thread shop. [Courtesy photos] Bottom: [Photo by Alec Boykin]
Chocolate ‘aphrodisiac’ balls
Herbalist Emily Stock, who owns Sundial Medicinals, will be offering her line of handcrafted, herbal medicine, teas, and body care products. This year she’s excited to offer some new products, including new formulas and tinctures, as well as a new “scar oil” to help “soften” scars and prevent their formation.
Stock offers 25 different tea blends, as well as tea infusers and accessories.
“Herbal tea is such a comfort in winter, and makes a great gift,” Stock says. “I love the idea of gifting consumable things that people can enjoy and use.”
Other bestsellers, says Stock, include respiratory tinctures that help with congestion and support lung health, as well as formulas to support sleep and promote a feeling of general calmness throughout the day. Stock additionally offers herbs to help with digestion and support hormonal health. And, she’ll have something new this year – t-shirts and tote bags.
Like last year, Stock will be selling her chocolate “aphrodisiac” balls, made of peanut butter, spices, tincture, herb powders all mixed together and then dipped in chocolate. It’s an item she always sells out of, she says.
“We have such a blast, sipping our tea,” while working the booth, Stock says. “It’s pretty fun.” She says she’ll visit the other vendors Friday evening before the doors open to the public, returning later to make her own purchases.
“It’s great to see everything that everybody creates,” she says. “It’s all handcrafted. There are some really cool vendors.” She says last year her family bought handcrafted ornaments for their Solstice tree.
Stock, who has been an herbalist for about 17 years, owns Sundial Medicinals Apothecary, at 550 N. Main St. The shop is open Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This year’s craft fair includes a wide array of artisans selling handcrafted jewelry – including cactus wood jewelry – as well as those selling wood-turned bowls, stained glass artwork, photography, wreaths, ceramics, and more.
Young players with the Beacon Afterschool Strings program will perform Friday evening while shoppers browse, and on Saturday a chorus will sing carols sometime during the day. And, as always, there will be a free kids’ holiday-themed craft activity on Saturday, from noon to 2 p.m.
Herbalist Emily Stock, owner of Sundial Medicinals, will be offering her line of handcrafted, herbal medicine, teas, and body care products at the craft fair. [Courtesy photos]
“The craft fair is a wonderful way to shop locally and support artisans.”
Wild Raven Soaps
Like Desert Thread, Wild Raven Soap Company got its start in business at the Holiday Craft Fair, when they were still making soaps out of their home. These days, owners Kai Malloy and Jen Hancewicz create their soaps and other products at their store and soap studio at 37 E. Center St.
“Soap making is a great balance of science and art, which really appealed to us both,” Hancewicz says.
The couple began by gifting their homemade soaps to friends, who encouraged them to go into business. Thus, they signed up for the Moab Arts Holiday Craft fair in 2019, where they found the community response to their products “overwhelming.” They sold out of many of their soaps and skincare products that weekend, says Hancewicz.
Wild Raven offerings include old-fashioned, cold-process bar soaps, an array of skincare products, as well as products for the home and people’s canine companions. Their products include beard and shave products such as shave soap, aftershave, beard oil and balm. They also make solid scents and essential oil roll-ons, shampoo and conditioner bars, hair oil, bath and shower salts, fizzies and steamers, cream deodorant, lotions and balms and dog soaps. In addition, Wild Raven will be offering seasonal soaps at the holiday fair.
Wild Raven opened its shop in November 2022, while continuing to sell their products online via their website. They also participate in a variety of markets and special events.
“We really enjoy these events, especially having the opportunity to be out in the community meeting locals, and visitors from all over the world,” says Hancewicz. “We particularly enjoy the Holiday Craft Fair at the MARC because it is where we made our debut. It is a wonderful way to shop locally, support area artisans, and find one-of-a-kind gifts made in Moab.” n
Returning vendors Jen Hancewicz and Kai Malloy, of Wild Raven Soap Company, got their start at the Holiday Craft Fair, and have since opened a storefront on Center Street in Moab. [Courtesy photos]
G R A N D C O U N T Y H O S P I C E
T h e n u r s e s o f G r a n d C o u n t y H o s p i c e a r e s o a m a z i n g . T h e i r l o v i n g c a r e
h e l p e d m y m o t h e r s o m u c h , i n a d d i t i o n t o t h e o t h e r c a r e g i v e r s w h o
w e r e t a k i n g c a r e o f h e r . T h e y c a m e w h e n e v e r w e n e e d e d a s s i s t a n c e
a n d a n s w e r e d a l l o u r q u e s t i o n s . H o w f o r t u n a t e w e a r e t o h a v e s u c h
a w o n d e r f u l a n d c a r i n g o r g a n i z a t i o n t o h e l p w i t h a c h a l l e n g i n g t i m e .
