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Clara Morris said she's selling decorative goose eggs to help support a family of artisans she met three years ago while volunteering with the Peace Corps in Moldova
Clara Morris said she's selling decorative goose eggs to help support a family of artisans she met three years ago while volunteering with the Peace Corps in Moldova
Ethnic festival broadens horizons
By LENA FUNG WARMACK
The Kansas City Star
Clara Morris of Liberty said she took advantage of the Northland Ethnic Festival to share her passion for one particular Eastern European country.
“It was a great way to introduce people to Moldova and to educate them on the country and broaden their horizon.”
Morris, 50, said she's selling decorative goose eggs to help support a family of artisans she met three years ago while volunteering with the Peace Corps in Moldova.
Morris said she started selling the eggs in March after a relative placed an order for 100 eggs to help support her cause.
“They don't really have any way of selling the eggs locally because the economy is so bad.”
Instead, Morris receives periodic shipments of crates packed with the 150 decorative eggs and sells the specialty items for $15 each.
“I always looked at eggs in the markets but I never saw any eggs that were made with high quality of artwork,” she said. “The square patterns are so precise. It's just not sloppy. Every little detail is exactly right.”
At the ethnic festival, Morris said she sold 14 eggs and filled up an e-mail contact list with names of individuals interested in purchasing products imported from the country.
About 2,500 people stopped by the free event at Park Hill High School.
Guests were entertained with 20 live performances, and 40 international food and cultural display booths featuring information and artwork from various countries.
Michael B. Hernandez, coordinator of international student services at Park University and a festival committee member, said the festival was a hit and he wants to bring it back next year.
“We couldn't have asked for a better scenario,” he said. Shortly after the event, his committee received an e-mail request from a festival organization in Jefferson City asking for performance and booth participant contacts.
He said the committee worked under the $15,000 budget and the event did not have any security or parking problems.
“Everybody that was involved this year seemed to be committed to doing it again next year.”
Next year, Hernandez said he expected between 3,000 to 5,000 festival-goers and more than half of the participants to join next year's festival. Also, the committee would host the event in an outdoor venue.
To reach Lena Fung Warmack, call (816) 234-5907 or send e-mail to lwarmack@kcstar.com.