As the days shorten and we can start to see our breath in the air, many community members look forward to the annual Winterer’s Gathering event at North House Folk School. This year, with pandemic precautions in place, we will be celebrating the coming winter with some familiar and some new events.
The annual Great Gear and Ski Sale is a community wide event that helps people clean out their closets of winter recreational gear, and helps folks find great deals on used skis, winter clothes, boots, and more. The event is a partnership between the folk school and the Lutsen Junior Alpine Ski team and proceeds benefit both community organizations.
This year the Great Gear and Ski Sale will be held on Saturday November 21 from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. outside in the center of the North House campus. People with gear they’d like to sell can drop off items on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, November 18, 19, or 20, on the North House campus. The drop-off site is at the Boat Barn behind Dockside from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. each day.
Drop-off will be contactless, and masks are required. Sellers can print their seller sheets ahead of time on the North House website and deliver their items already tagged and with their seller sheet filled out. Sellers can choose to keep 60 percent, 40 percent or fully donate the proceeds from their items. All donations must be dropped off ahead of time; there are no day-of donations this year.
On the day of the gear sale, the community is invited to come by anytime between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to shop. Masks are required, hand sanitizer will be provided (mittens encouraged!), a limited number of customers will be allowed in the sale area at a time, and the sale will be set up to allow for proper social distancing. Customers are encouraged to pay by card, but cash in exact change and checks are also accepted. After shopping the sale, be sure to also check out the annual intern portfolio show, which will highlight the craftwork of the 2020 North House interns.
In addition to the Gear and Ski Sale, there will also be an Outdoor Film Festival on Friday, November 20. There will be 90 minutes of fun wintery-themed short films broadcast on a big screen outdoors at North House. Attendance is limited to groups of up to 5 people with a total audience size of 45. Each group will have a personal fire to keep them warm and safely distant. We’ll provide the fuel, the films, and the fun, attendees bring everything else! (Masks, blankets, warm clothes, snacks etc.). There are three screening times: 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are free, but will be required for entry and can be reserved ahead of time online on the North House website.
We’ll miss welcoming the community to campus for the chili feed, contra dance, and other aspects of the event that just aren’t safe to host this year. Some new virtual events not to be missed this year include skill share videos, online film screenings, and online arctic-themed webinars. More details about all aspects of the event are available on the North House website.
For tickets and more information, go online to northhouse.org.
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