Jim Fair
June Hawkins, left, Linda Brown, center, and Patsy Quarles are giving homemade items finishing touches for their display.
Jim Fair
Hannah Rainwater, left, and Barbara Martin confer to assure that attention to details are becoming fewer as the hours count down to Big Thursday beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Jim Fair
Handmade crafts, said Barbara Martin, routinely are popular items for shoppers as Christmas presents.
Jim Fair
This 2003 Grand Cherokee is too big to put under a tree – at least indoors. But it is scheduled to be one of the items available at the live auction scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday. Visit Greer Community Ministries for auction items.
Volunteers, vendors, organizers and delivery people were organizing the final goods that will be sold and auctioned today at the annual Big Thursday, Greer Community Ministries' biggest fundraiser of the year.
Barbara Martin is volunteering at her 22nd Big Thursday. This is the 34th annual event. “My heart is in this and I love being involved,” Martin said.
Food and crafts go on sale at 8:30 a.m. Thursday until 9 p.m. A silent auction continues until the evening and the live auction begins at 7 p.m. A barbecue lunch (sponsored by D&D Ford) and hot dog dinner (Greer Lions Club) will provide food. Vendors will also set up stations. Visit Greer Community Ministries for auction items and more information.
Nancy Welch will be in the kitchen from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. baking 100 dozen of her signature “Angel Biscuits”. She already baked 100 dozen.
Martin was reminiscing Wednesday as the final items were carefully displayed, tables set up for the baked goods scheduled to arrive later in the evening and signage that would be displayed to direct a large part of the greater Greer community to the venues.
Martin said a truck full of casseroles and hundreds of pies, cakes and cookies are bought as much for weekend and Sunday dinners as for the holidays.
“This is as much a reunion for people who haven’t been here in years or have been to Greer recently,” Martin said. “This is a great opportunity to Christmas shop, too. There are some good hand-made items like scarves and afghans.”
One of the items that won’t go under the tree is a 2003 Grand Cherokee. It was parked outside the gymnasium Wednesday ready to be auctioned Thursday night at 7 p.m.