by Logan Gruber
operations@thenewsleaders.com
A number of volunteers, community organizations and businesses have pooled their resources to create a weekend of festivities. The Winterwalk will take place from 5-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, in downtown St. Joseph; the Christmas-tree lighting will be held at 6 p.m. at the patio of Bello Cucina, at 15 E. Minnesota St. Ste. 101, while the Holiday Art Crawl will span three area businesses from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5.
This will be the second annual Winterwalk, the sixth annual Holiday Art Crawl and the sixth annual Christmas-tree lighting. The Winterwalk and Christmas-tree lighting had been combined for the first time last year, but this will be the first year all three events are coordinated and marketed together. The combined events are collectively being referred to as the Holiday Art Walk-n-Crawl.
“The purpose is to support our community during the holiday season,” said Alex Miller, sustainability fellow for the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in a St. Joseph Newsleader interview.
Miller’s Office of Sustainability is working together with area businesses as well as the St. Joseph Action Group to produce the weekend of events. Miller became involved in the Winterwalk/Art Crawl discussion as part of her project to bring students off of campus and into town to bridge the communities.
“We want to encourage businesses to get students ingratiated into the community,” Miller said.
Miller is coordinating student volunteers to help with the Winterwalk, including providing music and helping children at the crafts table in Heritage Hall.
“Local businesses often donate money back to local causes or have kids in local schools, so we want to support them,” Miller said.
The Bruno Press, at 154 Fifth Ave. S.E. is one stop on the Dec. 5 Holiday Art Crawl, along with Bad Habit Brewery at 15 E. Minnesota St. Ste. 108 and Minnesota Street Market at 27 W. Minnesota St.
“We decided, the more the merrier,” said Mary Bruno of Bruno Press in a Newsleader interview in regard to joining the events. “Let’s just market our events together. St. Joseph businesses and St. Joseph artists working together.”
“All of the artists who will exhibit at Minnesota Street Market are all brand new to this Holiday Art Crawl,” Bruno noted, though they may have exhibited in St. Joseph at a different art crawl.
Here is the schedule for next weekend:
Friday, Dec. 4
An Art and Crafty Hands sale will be held from 4-9 p.m. at Heritage Hall in the Church of St. Joseph, 12 W. Minnesota St. The event offers arts, crafts, a bake sale, and food and beverages.
The Winterwalk will be held from 5-8 p.m. across downtown. Storefronts will be decorated for the season, and local shops will offer warm refreshments and activities. Luminaries, candles inside of a paper bag weighed down with sand, will line the sidewalk of the downtown area.
At 6 p.m., the tree-lighting ceremony will be held on the patio of Bello Cucina. City Administrator Judy Weyrens will light the tree, and there will be carol singing. The tree has been lit by a special guest the past five years: Marv Mastey in 2014, Mike McDonald as the Living Tree in 2013, Mayor Rick Schultz in 2012, Lisa Wallin as Mrs. Claus in 2011 and Phil Welter in 2010.
Santa and Mrs. Claus will be at Heritage Hall at 6:30 p.m. to meet the good little boys and girls.
Saturday, Dec. 5
Three locations will host the Holiday Art Crawl from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Bruno Press will have letterpress goods on hand. Bad Habit Brewery will have pottery, jewelry, soap and candles. Minnesota Street Market will have woodwork, pottery, jewelry, watercolor paintings, knit goods and fiber crafts. Bruno said people can pick up a card to get punched at each of the three locations, and once they have one punch from each location they can enter into a drawing at one of the locations for a gift basket. The basket contains an assortment of goods from the artists and local businesses valued at around $175.
Items in the gift baskets were donated by the local artists as well as Bruno Press, Minnesota Street Market and Bad Habit Brewery.
Mary Bruno inspects gift baskets which will be raffled off after the Art Crawl on Saturday, Dec. 5. Items in the gift baskets were donated by the local artists as well as Bruno Press, Minnesota Street Market and Bad Habit Brewery.
Santa and Mrs. Claus interact with the crowd shortly after Marv Mastey lit the Christmas tree during last year’s annual tree-lighting ceremony.
Bruno Press printed posters for the two-day event, and will also print maps and punch cards.
