Events and Activities : 50th Dysart Bazaar & Holiday Market returns November 13 benefit UCSD Scholarship

The non-profit Dysart Development Corporation (DDC) will host the community's fiftieth annual Dysart Bazaar and Holiday Market on Saturday, November 13, 2021. Open to the public at no charge, the event features a wide variety of artists selling their exclusive handmade crafts and homemade baked goods at the handicapped-accessible Dysart, Iowa, Community Building, at 418 Main Street, from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. The event returns to its traditional second Saturday in November festivities, after a hiatus in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Dysart Development Corporation is proud to again welcome visitors to this popular holiday event, to make Christmas shopping easy and to prepare for Thanksgiving get-togethers," said DDC President Rhonda Lassen. "Take in the Dysart Bazaar and Holiday Market, then take in the unique shops downtown, to make a day of it in Dysart, and invite your friends and family to join you," she said.

Shoppers can select from a variety of original, handmade art, ranging from seasonal Santas, snowmen, and angels to stylish home dcor, jewelry, accessories and more.

Whether you are shopping for gifts for toddlers to teens to senior citizens, you'll find a wide variety of items from which to choose. For babies, cute clothing like onesies, bracelets, bows, blankets, teddy bears, and crocheted stuffed animals will be offered for sale. Choose from holiday decorations like wreaths, accents made from vintage repurposed items, signs, and other accessories to decorate your own home inside and out, or to give as gifts, or to for memorials to loved ones.

To warm up cold hands during the winter, opt for wool sweaters recycled into mittens, or durable and stylish rag rugs to help take the chill off of cold floors. Choose from embroidered towels, etched glassware, stained glass, pottery, and laser-engraved wood crafts for a gift for yourself or others.

Looking to accent your personal style? Shop for handmade earrings, bracelets or other jewelry.

Hosting guests for the holidays or just don't have time cook? Relax. Shop for homemade baked goods including artisan breads baked by the non-profit Vison Dysart volunteers, or choose from other tasty treats prepared by exhibitors like jams, rolls, cookies more to satisfy your sweet tooth.

New this year are concessions available from volunteers raising funds for Dysart's Little Knights Daycare Dysart campus. Breakfast and lunch items including the event's famous turkey pasta salad, and more will be served, with proceeds benefitting the spacious new community daycare center building that opened in Dysart in 2021.

Dysart's La Maison Women's Club started the popular holiday event, succeeded by the Fine Arts Women's Club, and later volunteer leaders representing the Dysart Development Corporation, Dwayne Luze and Don Lyons. Lyons retired from the role when his longtime co-chair, Luze, passed away April 1.

That's when DDC Chair Rhonda Lassen, together with cards crafter Tammy Freemon, of Dysart, and Dysart native and artist Kathy Krafka Harkema, teamed up to volunteer coordinate the event and host this year's festivities.

Only a few vendor spaces remain, so anyone interested in applying to sell handmade goods may email their request to, or request an application by mail at: dysartdev@gmail.com. Exhibitors pay $35 per space, with proceeds from the event benefitting scholarships for LaPorte City and Dysart area Union high school students. Those wishing to volunteer to help with event preparation and day-of-festivities can email dysartdev@gmail.com, and include their name, contact phone number and email. Volunteers are needed to assist with event set-up November 12, and to help support event coordination November 13, including assisting exhibitors with unloading, loading, and greeting visitors.

For more information about the Dysart Development Corporation, visit: https://www.discoverdysart.org.