By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
For $2 on Saturday, you can shop for Christmas presents, get your picture taken with Santa – and help an organization that provides needed mental health and substance counseling services for the entire community.
The 38th Annual Christmas Bazaar, a fundraiser for Sitka Counseling, will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall. Admission is free for those under 12.
Some 65 vendors will be selling their wares and home crafts – from ceramics and jewelry to soaps, clothing and artwork of all kinds.
“I love seeing everybody’s art, and the talent we have in the community,” said April Troup, the Sitka Counseling finance specialist, now in her third year organizing the bazaar.
Santa will take the main stage from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for photographs, which can be purchased later at Harry Race Photo.
Sandy Greba, the owner of Nature’s Images, was getting an early start today setting up the double booth where she will be showing a huge variety of items and artwork she has created, including watercolors, birdhouses, and wind chimes. She regularly participates in trade shows and fairs in Alaska and elsewhere. This is her 17th time selling her work at the Christmas Bazaar.
“It’s my favorite show that I do,” said Greba, a 39-year Sitka resident. “I get to see people I haven’t seen in ages. It’s a good all-around fun time.”
The Christmas Bazaar is the year’s biggest fundraiser for Sitka Counseling, the organization dedicated to promoting wellness in the community. All proceeds from the table rentals, and admission fees go to the organization to support its programs. Vendors are also asked to donate 5 percent from their sales to the agency.
Kimberly Riech and Stefanie Wynne of Counting Twirls set up their booth at Centennial Hall this afternoon. Dozens of vendors were busy setting up their wares for the annual Christmas Bazaar, which takes place Saturday. The Christmas Bazaar is an annual fundraiser for Sitka Counseling. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Sitka Counseling’s mission statement says it is “to contribute to the social, behavioral, and emotional well-being of our diverse community and its members by providing professional preventative and therapeutic behavioral health services in a welcoming, accessible, integrated, continuous, and comprehensive continuum of care.”
Another goal, said Sitka Counseling executive director Amy Zanuzoski, is to help reduce the stigma of mental health issues and substance use in the community.
“It affects everybody but really people don’t want to acknowledge it affects them,” she said. “What people don’t understand is it’s just as important as physical health. ... You don’t have to have severe mental illness to access our help.”
Most of the booths at the bazaar are run by small businesses, artists and entrepreneurs, but three will specifically help enhance services for Sitka Counseling clients.
Hot dogs, popcorn, fruit and cheese trays will be available at a booth where the proceeds will go toward Christmas presents for the 3-to-18-year-old kids at the Family Center. The Family Center provides therapeutic services to kids and their families who exhibit “severe behavioral, emotional, or social disabilities.” The focus of the center is early intervention in the home, school and community, and clinical support for client and family.
The Family Center also offers family skills development, where families receive training and support to help create a “more successful family communication and healthy home living environments.”
Another booth will be a taco bar to benefit Sitka Counseling’s Harbor Lights. Funds raised will go toward recreational services, such as pool passes, for adults with mental health challenges.
“A lot of our clients are under the poverty level, and a lot can’t afford to do activities in the community,” said Zanuzoski.
Harbor Lights offers individual and group services, rehabilitation and support groups to promote community living skills, interpersonal communication skills, personal living skills and life skills training for independent living. Lunch is served daily at Harbor Lights, prepared by clients and staff.
The third Sitka Counseling booth at the Christmas Bazaar is for the Residential Program, which serves both men and women with substance abuse or dependence issues in a family style environment with peer support. Residents clean the facility, shop and prepare meals, with menus set by the group.
“The program focuses on assisting clients in attaining or maintaining abstinence, establishing a quality program of recovery, integrating treatment for co-occurring disorders, making healthy connections to the community, and achieving economic self-sufficiency,” Sitka Counseling says on its website. “The objective is to achieve the knowledge, skills, and support needed to successfully re-enter the life of the community with a sober and fulfilling life.”
Residents stay in the facility for an average of four to six months.
The money raised through the booth’s chili sales will help buy Christmas presents and sundry items such as toothpaste and toothbrushes for the adults as they stay in a facility and continue “learning how to be sober, live sober,” Zanuzoski said.
Sitka Counseling will also host a booth asking the public to take a five-minute survey of 23 questions, mostly directed at middle and high school students, to help guide prevention activities Sitka Counseling may want to initiate.
The questions are related to “their perception of peer disapproval” related to drugs and substance use, as well as questions about drug use. The surveys are taken on Kindle tablets, and are anonymous, said Loyd Platson, Sitka Counseling prevention director.
Those who take the surveys will receive a McDonald’s combo meal gift card, and are eligible for a drawing for one of 15 free pizzas.
Platson said the surveys will help Sitka Counseling report its “core measures” required for its Drug-Free Communities grant, for some $125,000 per year.
