While the Spring Craft Fair signifies the end of the season for some Maryville residents, others are using it as an opportunity to get an early spring on their new business.
The Spring Craft Fair is an annual event organized by Maryville Parks and Recreation, held at the Maryville Community Center. The event opens a market for vendors to showcase and sell their products. While some vendors are local businesses, others come from further in the region to sell their products. Elizabeth Lyle, the marketing and events supervisor at MPR, said business attendance at the fair is steadily growing.
“This is our highest attended one in the six years, so we hope that continues to go up,” Lyle said. “Our Christmas Craft Fair is always sold out, and we have waiting lists three pages long, so the goal is to get our spring one as big as our Christmas one, and this year, I think we were 14 spaces away (from filling vendor capacity), so we’re pretty close.”
The Spring Craft Fair features products ranging from seasoned pretzels to 3D printed crafts. Lyle said about 60 vendors hosted displays this weekend, with the maximum capacity being around 85.
Many of those vendors had never previously sold their products at the Spring Craft Fair.
Sticky Situation Creations, a custom apparel and gifts business started by Merinda Mitchell, is one of the first-time vendors at the fair. Mitchell works as a paramedic, but she started her business while recovering from surgery in 2024. She said she found her passion for designing when her husband asked for custom designs for his work. Mitchell said Sticky Situation Creations offers a break from her medical career.
“It’s nice to have an outlet that isn’t medical, something that’s artistic,” Mitchell said. “I never in a million years would’ve dreamed I would have done something like this. My whole life has been very medical-based, so now I get to do things that are a little bit more artsy.”
While some of the businesses catered to an adult audience, others had a specific focus on products for children. Stephanie Neal, the Balloon Twister, said the reason she charges 50 cents per balloon is to make sure every child has the opportunity to leave with a balloon. She said the inspiration for her business is giving back to the community in an entertaining way.
Before Neal began her business, she worked as an investigator for a law firm in child custody cases. However, she said these cases were depressing, which led her to start her own investigative agency. Neal said she is happy that she can help children who are going through a tough time in a much simpler way.
“I want to be able to spread all that word; not just the balloon, but what comes with it, and that’s the kids,” Neal said. “We want the families and the kids and the community to come together and just reach out to that kid that hasn’t been there, and how I could do that for 50 cents out of my pocket.”
The Spring Craft Fair allows businesses of all sizes to come and promote their products. Entrepreneurs of a wide range of ages use the platform to start their financial journey. Lyle said the fair promotes the expansion of the brands present.
“We’ve seen a lot of our small businesses grow and start out here,” Neal said. “It really gets everyone to know what’s all out there, and once they find that product that they like, they want to keep coming back, and whether that’s here or just allowing them to outgrow, that’s all right too.”
This story is brought to KXCV-KRNW by The Northwest Missourian, the campus newspaper of Northwest Missouri State University.