Calico Christmas Show
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Press Release #1 A 20-year-long Gold Beach holiday tradition will continue this year thanks largely to the efforts of David Willhite, a Gold Beach High School graduate. The 20th Annual Calico Christmas Show will take place November 25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., in Docia Sweet Hall at the Event Center on the Beach (Curry County Fairgrounds). The Calico Christmas Show has become one of Gold Beach's premier gift shopping events, with customers returning year after year to buy handcrafted Christmas gifts of all types. Previous years have included such items as hand carved wooden bowls, hand woven rugs, stained glass, pine furniture, pottery, knitted sweaters and felted hats, Christmas ornaments and hand made jewelry. Willhite, who resides in Coos Bay, first participated in the Calico Christmas Show while still in high school fourteen years ago, selling the pottery he made in Paul Renner's ceramics class. When Willhite recently heard rumors that the Calico Christmas Show might not happen, he gave a call to Mary Ann Gray, longtime promoter of the event. Concerned over the loss of such a long-standing event, and for all the artists and crafters who depended on the Calico Christmas Show, they decided, "the show must go on!" Knowing that David had recently created and promoted a show of his own, the Winter Art & Chocolate Festival in Brookings, Gray handed the reigns to Willhite and took a well deserved year-off. Dee Boughton and a friend started the show 20 years ago in 1986. The first year it was held inside the gym at the old elementary school, across from what is now the Biscuit Building. The second year, Mary Ann Gray and Mary Ann Lopez took over the "Calico Country Bazaar" as it was called at the time. They ran it together for about ten years, at which time Mary Ann Gray assumed responsibility for promoting and running the show by herself. This year, as he did 14 years ago, Willhite will sell his pottery, accompanied by his fellow artists, crafters and those who have become friends over the years. "I feel that artists and fine crafters are a family out here on the event circuit. We sell our hand made items at events that are within a couple hours of home and we all get to know each other and watch out for one another," said Willhite, "The things we make - pottery or leather or wooden - harkens back to a day when all Christmas gifts were made by hand. We enjoy the special feeling people get, when they buy something we've made, either for themselves or for a gift." Artists, artisans, and fine crafters interested in participating in the 20th Annual Calico Christmas Show should contact David Willhite for an application by calling 541-266-9473.
