By Kat Bryant

Grays Harbor News Group

Artists and craftspeople from all over the Olympic Peninsula will be featured at the annual Spring Craft Fair and Bake Sale hosted by the Lake Quinault Community Circle on Saturday.

The fair will be held at the Lake Quinault School (in the gym), at 6130 U.S Highway 101 in Amanda Park, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Alison Carlyle brought the twice-annual event under LQCC’s purview about three years ago and is heavily involved in organizing it.

“When I grew up in Quinault, they used to have craft bazaars — my mom was involved in that, and my grandma, and a bunch of other community members,” she said. “When I was working with Americorps at the high school and grade school, part of my job was to do community events. And I decided I was going to do the craft fair.”

The fairs now take place in mid-May and the week of Veterans Day in November, and she said it has grown every year. They’re looking at having 15 to 20 booths this year, compared with 13 last fall.

“We get some vendors from Ocean Shores and the beach area, a few from Raymond and the South Beach area, a few from Monte and Elma; but usually, the majority of people involved are from the immediate area — from Humptulips to Queets or Kalaloch,” she said. “I work hard to get a good variety.”

Vendors will be selling canned and baked goods, homemade knickknacks, metal and woodworks, soaps, honey, jewelry and even brands such as Scentsy and Avon. “At first I was trying to keep it all homemade, handmade, locally made,” she said. “But then I had a lot of younger groups that wanted to do that kind of thing, so we’ve opened it up to that as well.”

The Bake Sale portion serves as a fundraiser for the Lake Quinault Community Circle, a nonprofit group of volunteers dedicated to helping people in need and bringing the community together.

For more information, contact Angela Sowards at 360-640-8953 or sowardsangela@gmail.com.