To kick off the spring season, Fanshawe’s Innovation Village is set to host the Blossom Spring Market. The market will be held on March 19 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This season’s market was organized by students who are a part of the Special Events Planning program.

Kristi Hall, Special Events Planning program coordinator, explained the concept of the market stemmed from a project for second-year students in the program.

“Students are tasked with creating their event from start to finish and executing it during their final term before graduation,” Hall said.

“This group came up with the idea for the Blossom Market and has coordinated all the event details including securing vendors, booking and organizing the space, marketing the event and conducting risk management strategies.” This is the first seasonal market to be held in the new space since its opening back in January. The organizers felt that it was the perfect space to hold the event.

“With the opening of Innovation Village this year, our Event Planning program has committed to utilizing the space for some of our events,” Hall said. “We are thrilled to be able to host the Blossom Market there this term as the Village is ideal for a trade show-style event.”

The market will feature vendors and an art gallery for guests to tour and look at while visiting. All the artwork provided and vendor stalls are run by students from Fanshawe as well.

“Many of the vendors are students from the college who will be marketing their business at the event. We are thrilled to support our student entrepreneurs!”

Other businesses partaking in the market are Fanshawe alumni who have started their businesses since graduating.

The market will have plenty of activities for students to enjoy and take part in. Two of the market’s organizers, Jacob Neil and Megha Zacharia, gave a rundown on what fun awaits.

“A lot of it is based on the vendors we have,” said Neil. “The blossom team has been making bracelets, a selfie station at the market, the FSU popcorn stand, and a whole lot of vendors for people to come around and explore what people have been doing in the local community.”

The options of vendors are endless, from custom jewelry to homemade goods.

“We have a preserves company, Minerva Resin, where they’ll be doing custom resin work, a handful of candle and crystal vendors that have some cool stuff and the other ones that are closely tied to our event theme of mental health, like Stevie’s Safe Space, which has clothing and stickers that are for [2SLGBTQIA+] rights and activism, and mental health associated around that,” Neil said.

Aside from shopping, students can also take a peek at artwork created by students in Fanshawe’s Fine Art program.

“We have around 18 pieces of art that students can pay $15 for and it’s a really beautiful art piece,” said Zacharia.

All the proceeds being gathered from the Blossom Spring Market are being donated to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) to provide students with free transportation to their 24/7 crisis centre.