The Leander High School Craft Market happens Saturday, Nov. 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at LHS as a fundraiser for the baseball team. There will be many different vendors, a silent auction, concessions and other activities.

“We rent space to local vendors, people that want to sell creative items or food, like pies and cookies,” baseball coach Matt Grissom said. “Essentially it’s a fundraiser, but it’s also a neat time for the community to come out and shop, see each other and get ready for the holiday season.”

Vendors will set up in the PAC area, the competition gym, the cafeteria, the middle gym and the Blue Belles room, where they will sell a variety of things.

“People bring things like Christmas wreaths, knitted or crocheted items,” Grissom said. “You’ll have sports team socks and clothing of different sorts. And then of course you have anything from bird feeders or fun things like that to insurance companies that want to get their business out there.”

The baseball team will raise money by renting booths, running a silent auction for items that vendors have donated and a concession stand.

“It’s how we raise money for baseball,” team member junior Harrison Thayer said. “[We use the money for] jerseys, baseballs and things like that, but it just depends on what we need.”

Thayer said that members of the baseball team often help run the craft market, as well as helping with setting it up and taking it down.

“We start setting up on Friday night,” Grissom said. “We clear out the cafeteria during the last class period. And we work until about 10 p.m. and then I send them home. They come back at 5:45 Saturday morning to help get vendors inside and where they want to be. And then we take turns working all throughout the day during the market. At 4p.m. when it’s over we have to help all the vendors load everything back up.”

Despite the disruption caused by COVID-19 a few years ago, people and vendors have been coming back to the market, bringing it back to what it was pre-COVID.

“I’m very appreciative of my players and parents that volunteer their time, [and] all the other people that come in to work the craft market,” Grissom said. “It’s a huge undertaking that we wouldn’t be able to do without them. It makes me proud that we do something like this and it’s become something that the people in our community look forward to.”