News Photo by Julie Goldberg The Ella White Christmas Bazaar was on Saturday and the school was filled throughout the day with people checking out the many vendors that were there.

ALPENA — Ella White Elementary School was packed on Saturday for the annual Ella White Christmas Bazaar.

Vendors lined up the hallways and filled the multipurpose room and gymnasium for people to come see what they brought.

Bazaar Coordinator Becky Seabase said the bazaar has been going on for many years and is the school’s Parent Teacher Organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

People could buy raffle tickets for chances to win different prizes, and the money from the raffle baskets goes right to the teachers. Seabase said the teachers appreciate the money that is raised from the raffle baskets.

“They get the money themselves and the PTO gets the money from the vendors,” Seabase said.

Last year, the raffle baskets raised over $6,000 for the teachers. Seabase said teachers are able to purchase items for their classroom, Chromebooks or iPads.

“They’re able to use it for new technology and things in their classroom that they not have,” she said.

This year, instead of a concession stand, there was a bake sale for Violets for Violet for Violet McLaren, an Ella White fifth-grader who is awaiting a heart transplant. The bake sale sold out, but there were still people donating to Violets for Violet.

“We were able to donate money to her this year,” Seabase said.

Seabase said if people are still interested in donating to Violet and her family, she said people can bring their money into the school, or send them to the Ella White PTO with an explanation of what the money is for so the PTO knows to give to Violet’s family.

The bazaar is a huge event and helps the PTO be able to host events throughout the school year, Seabase said.

The event always takes place the first Saturday of December, and Seabase said the vendor spots are usually filled by January. The vendors were able to start signing up while the bazaar was going on Saturday.

Students from the National Junior High Society and Alpena High School leadership students volunteered during the event. Seabase said the event wouldn’t be possible without the volunteers and the teachers who also took their time to volunteer during the day.

“If it wasn’t for them, there’s no way we would be able to run the way we could run,” she said.

Julie Goldberg can be reached at 989-358-5688 or jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jkgoldberg12.