Vassar Haiti Project

On Nov. 25-26, VHP hosted its annual, on-campus Thanksgiving Sale. Below, VP for Activities LeeAnne Taylor ’15 muses about the sale’s connections to Vassar community life.

“For each of the past several years, VHP members have spent the last few days of November putting on the Thanksgiving Sale. This sale takes place in the College Center; instead of the usual sights, passersby are met with big tables bursting with vibrant Haitian handcrafts. This is what is beautiful about the Thanksgiving sale to me– it exists within the everyday lives of the Vassar community. While we were still setting up on the first morning, a Vassar employee began excitedly looking through the displays, telling us which items she’d gotten in years past and what she wanted to find this time. VHP’s relationship with the Vassar community is so important to what we do, and the Thanksgiving Sale is a really nice way to be reminded of the presence we have here at home.

LeeAnne ’15, left, with Jenna ’16, a fellow volunteer. 11.7.13.

The sale is also a rare chance to draw unexpecting students, employees, and visitors into the wonderful world of VHP, and it never gets old to watch someone new learn for the first time what VHP does. Even knowing that the sale was put on by the Vassar Haiti Project, many times someone would pause as they were picking out their purchases to ask who had made all these beautiful pieces. And they would begin to hear about a world of Haitian artists, spring break trips, and a village called Chermaitre. As breaks from school are a prime time for high school students to tour colleges, we got to talk to more than one prospective student visiting Vassar. As my fellow VHP-ers and I told them what we were doing and helped them pick out their favorite handcraft to bring back home, I could almost see in their faces the moment when they began to realize the kinds of things they could be a part of soon.

All in all, it was another successful Thanksgiving Sale that will make our yearly trip to Haiti possible, due to the hard work and unfailingly cheerful participation of so many people. From sorting through mountains of crafts in the days prior to pick out the perfect pieces to baking cookies to sell alongside them to staffing the tables all day long, the help of many caring hands made this great event a success. In true VHP tradition.”

— LeeAnne