By Catherine Ellerton

Moapa Valley Progress

A large crowd wanders through the aisles of the various vendors at the Holiday Bazaar held at the Casablanca in Mesquite on Saturday. Photo by Catherine Ellerton.

For a mere dollar and a donated canned good, holiday shoppers had the opportunity to help eliminate hunger while, at the same time, gaining access to 103 vendor booths at the CasaBlanca’s Event Tent on Saturday, November 26. The crowds had a lot to choose from as they looked for the perfect Christmas gift.

Carrie Gomez, the Event Manager of this 4th Annual Holiday Bazaar, was delighted with the response of the holiday crowd in offering cans to the collection to be given to the Salvation Army food bank for distribution. Gomez explained that the vendors came from California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona and were offering some creative gift ideas – from Christmas decorations, to bird feeders, solar screens to stuffed animals, jewelry and more – enough to keep the shopper busy.

As I wandered through the booths, I was delighted to come across the Valley’s own Carrie and Scott Beckstrand selling Pomegranate jelly.

A bit further on I met local Mesquite author Barbara Wyckoff who had moved to Mesquite from Denver, Colorado. She has been writing for over 30 years from her bylines in a Denver newspaper to a continuing “Sterling Quality” series of stories.

Throughout the day, the shoppers had an opportunity to sit down for a spell and enjoy a variety of talent – from Jackie Vielman & Mariana Martinez to the HMS Drill Team to Impersonators Jason Glenn (Tim McGraw) and Rachael Starks (Carrie Underwood).