BURRILLVILLE – Two Victorian era gentleman were pitching unusual jewelry pieces, each piece seeming to have a story.
The duo salesmen were re-enactors, their company is Big Bear Trading Company of Pascoag and they were participating in Jingle Mingle Vendor and Craft Show, a fundraiser with music and food held last Saturday in the Burrillville High School cafeteria.
A fundraiser of the BHS Music Boosters, the event included raffles as well as foods, from hotdogs, to coffee, cocoa and baked goods, and both local crafters and out-of-state vendors selling all sorts of potential Christmas presents. Items for sale including jewelry, crocheted goods, totes and t-shirts, cozies and candles, holiday decorations, and other carefully crafted objects.
Proceeds from the event went to the music program at the school–and holiday tunes were performed for the Jingle Minglers by members of the school band and choir.
“Victorian” Steve “Big Bear” Salisbury graduated from BHiS in 1971, and this Saturday he eagerly supported the music department at his first time back in the school, where he played trumpet and baritone horn in the band.
His “partner-in-arms”, or actually, jewelry sales, Donald Henry of Milford, Mass., has been with the Big Bear company for more than a decade. The two Victorians, who are sometimes attired as Colonial Americans, also set up at Revolutionary War and Civil War reenactment events and elsewhere.
“There have been a lot of people coming through. Everybody’s very happy,” said Kristy Arnold, an advisor at the school. She was at the candy apple table working with Carmella White, whose daughter provided the chocolate and other types of covered apples.
Lee O’Connor, who is an alumni parent and music booster, has two children who graduated from BHS in 2016 and 2020 respectively, who were in the school’s band. The mother said she is “a big fan of the arts and music.
“They’re a great thing for the community,” said O’Connor.
Her son, Ryan O’Connor, was also back at his alma mater, helping his mother at a table selling raffle tickets.
Dalen Favali is the school’s music director.
“It’s a nice community event, and well-attended,” Favali said of the Jingle Mingle. “The kids provided good entertainment with a nice Christmas-y feel to it.”
Laurie Cornetta of Brookfield, Mass. and Julia Silva of Millis, Mass. were vendors, and their Plantiques table had an array of decorative plant holders with living plants and other merchandise for sale. The two women have worked together in veterinary medicine for 12 years, and as of this year also in their small business.
“Wonderful. It’s nice to see other people’s crafts,” said Silva of the event and the variety of vendors’ merch available.
Vendor Debbie Kane, the owner of Happy Place, came down from Enosburgh Falls, Vermont, traveling five and a half hours that began in snow close to the Canadian border, to exhibit her hand-crafted Christmas goods in Burrillville.
Her sister, Correna Kilgallon, also a crafter and originally from Vermont, but now of Woonsocket, was selling Christmas hand-made decorations, signs, and wreaths. The Burrillville fundraiser for the music at the high school is “lovely,” she said.
A second year exhibitor at the Burrillville High School event, Karen Marshall of Boylston, Mass., was selling pickles in jars, and other natural food favorites that she prepared at a commercial kitchen in the Attleboro area.
Burrillville resident, author and publisher Thea Fielding-Lowe, was at her table filled with inspirational, faith-based books for sale, including those from the series she penned titled “Church Girls.” This year her company, which began during the COVID lockdown and is named T. Fielding-Lowe, will publish its 100th book.
Whether close as Pascoag, or as far away as Northern Vermont, vendors and shoppers came out for a jingle mingle to support the music-makers at the Burrillville High School, and gaze at or take home a treasure or two.
