{"id":4424,"date":"2013-10-30T17:13:17","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T21:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4424"},"modified":"2013-11-06T14:00:45","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T19:00:45","slug":"outdoor-market-wraps-for-season-as-organizers-gear-up-for-indoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/outdoor-market-wraps-for-season-as-organizers-gear-up-for-indoors\/","title":{"rendered":"Outdoor market wraps for season as organizers gear up for indoors"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rain might have dampened and dispersed both customers and vendors at the final outdoor Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market of the seasons, but market organizers Saturday were looking forward to a busy \u2013 and dry \u2013 fall and winter ahead. <\/p>\n

For Anna Kroeplin, this year\u2019s Market chair, the Committee set itself the objective to grow in size both on the ground and in the number of customers, and simply be a year of success for their vendors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they succeed, we succeed,\u201d says Ms. Kroeplin. \u201cOne of my goals was making the northeast quadrant of Town aware that we even exist and extending that through Ontario. We really focused a lot on marketing and making sure we were getting the word out that Aurora has a fantastic Farmers\u2019 Market.\u201d
\nThey also asked their own customers to spread the word, and evidently it was a winning formula as speaking each week to vendors and customers, Ms. Kroeplin says each came across new faces. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery week there were new people there,\u201d she says. \u201cVendors were quite surprised there wasn\u2019t just the regulars and we were increasing in numbers.\u201d
\nMarket numbers often increased on the eight \u201cspecial event\u201d days they held at the Market, including Seniors\u2019 Appreciation Day, special events in conjunction with Kerry\u2019s Place Autism Services, the annual Strawberry Festival, the Apple and Honey Festival, and this year\u2019s Culinary Day held in conjunction with events put on by the Aurora Historical Society, Library, and Cultural Centre for Culture Days. One special event day, however, was particularly memorable, she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn our grand opening on May 4, we had our butterfly release,\u201d she says. \u201cWe never tried that before and it was not only astounding to me, seeing how many people actually attended it, I was [struck] by how many people actually showed up. It meant something very personal to each person, whether it was a celebration of life, a release, each butterfly that was released was very personal and really magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

These special event days, or the regular Market days, for that matter, could not have been possible without the many volunteers that came together for the occasion, notes Ms. Kroeplin. These numbers, she said, included 41 local high school students that came out early in the morning and stayed through closing, collecting over 1,100 volunteer hours all together. <\/p>\n

Along with their hours, the market also collected over 1,000 items of fresh produce for the Aurora Food Pantry every Saturday. <\/p>\n

With the outdoor events now in the proverbial can until next May, plans are already well underway for the first Indoor Market of the season, which will take over the Aurora Cultural Centre on Saturday, November 23. In previous years, the Market was confined to Brevik Hall and the Aurora Room, both on the second floor, but this year there will be expansion downstairs as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a room on the first floor and our regular room on the second floor,\u201d says Ms. Kroeplin. \u201cWe\u2019re going to expand it and open it up a bit. We have had a lot of interest from vendors who want to be at the indoor one and we want to provide as much variety as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A harpist will be on hand November 23 to add some ambiance to the occasion, extending the public conversation indoors, which is one of the things Ms. Kroeplin says was a hallmark of the season that has just wrapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere would be the most fun and impromptu conversations,\u201d she says of the season past. \u201cPeople could relax and enjoy an afternoon in a quaint setting with meeting friends and family, and getting to know each other again over a coffee or a crepe and just reconnect. We want to be a place where people connect to each other again.\u201d <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rain might have dampened and dispersed both customers and vendors at the final outdoor Aurora Farmers\u2019 Market of the seasons, but market organizers Saturday were looking forward to a busy \u2013 and dry \u2013 fall and winter ahead. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/2013-10-30-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-19m","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-21 06:54:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}