St. John’s in Caledonia hosts One Stop Shop for Christmas shopping needs

“I work with vendor relations, marketing, advertising, getting all of the concessions and bake sale stuff ready,” said Cox. “Everybody just kind of comes to me to find out where they are and how to set up.”

Cox has functioned as coordinator of the One Stop Shop for an estimated six years and is pleased to announce all proceeds from this year’s event will go towards completing phase two of St. John’s playground project. Phase two consists of replacing the school’s current playground structure, as it is outdated, and installing a new playground structure that includes a large climbing area.

Prior to the One Stop Shop, St. John’s had raised close to $30,000 for phase two of this playground project. However, according to Cox, the ultimate goal of the project is to raise $68,000 before summer of 2023.

“We have a very high goal standard, as we want to order the structure and have all of the money raised by February or March of 2023,” said Cox.

According to Cox, phase one of the playground project was completed some time ago and replaced the school’s swing sets, as well as added a Gaga Ball pit for the kids.

“Everything is just outdated. It’s small, and we want to grow it so that it can be an area for the community to come together,” said Cox. “If you drive past there in the evenings, you’ll see families playing at our playground, which we encourage and enjoy.”

The One Stop Shop featured over 30 different vendors and was considered an outright success.

“We are very particular about which vendors we have,” said Cox. “We want everyone to be as local as possible, so that we can support our local community.”

Items for sale included holiday decor, homemade and handcrafted signs, jewelry, knitting, crochet, skincare, nails, makeup, kids toys and much more.

“We kind of have a variety of everything.” said Cox.

In addition to the booths, St. John’s also offered concessions and a bake sale at this year’s One Stop Shop. All proceeds from the concessions also went to the playground project, whereas the bake sale operated on free will donations.

St. John’s students could be seen at the event helping with the concession stand and the bake sale, as well as helping with the set up and the tear down.

“It kind of takes a whole community to be able to support all of the extra needs that we just cannot afford as a school,” said Cox.