Find vintage treasures, help Critteraid Saturday in Summerland

If "thrifting" is the art of foraging for cool used, recycled and/or repurposed items, it only goes to follow that "Critteraiding" is the art of giving to worthy South Okanagan animal rescue society Critteraid.

Right?

Regardless of the phraseology, Saturday in Summerland you can do both, simultaneously, at that community's inaugural Spring Vintage Market.

"Critteraid needs money to build shelters and look after their animals," said market organizer Elaine Chernoff Friday afternoon as vendors all around her set up their displays.

Chernoff knows of what she speaks. When she's not setting up markets -- something she's done in communities throughout BC for the past quarter century -- she's a Critteraid volunteer, working at the organization's "Charity Shoppe" in downtown Summerland.

"So my initial goal was to have a vintage market because I saw all these same people coming into the store and I knew they were buying and selling."

Chernoff promises the event -- the first of what she hopes will be a series of similar markets -- will be overflowing with desirable vintage stuff.

"And no junk," she laughed. "Katie from Penticton has a collection she's been selling online and has had pop-up shops in Penticton. Sixties and 70s collectibles that include pottery and wicker and artwork.

"Becky has been refinishing furniture and painting it in a country Victorian style. Andrea is bringing her farmhouse and cottage collectibles. Theresa from the antique store in Ok Falls is focusing on vintage clothing and is hopefully bringing vintage jewelry too."

Stan Ryder and wife Shirley Meyer were busy filling a rack with distinctive mobiles and wind chimes, all DIY-made from repurposed housewares.

"Now these things won't go into the landfill," said Meyer. "We give it all a second life."

Even the construction was unique. Each item was held together not with glue, but with knitting needles inserted into holes the pair drilled through the material.

Clever.

The fun officially begins Saturday morning at 10 am and ends at 3. Admission is free, though anyone who wants to get in there a half-hour early (at 9:30) for first shot at the best stuff can do so by donating five bucks straight-up to Critteraid.

The early bird admission is one of three ways the event will raise money for the cause. The others are donation tins -- one on every vendor table -- and a day-long silent auction of four items, including a Japanese fishnet float and teak bookends from Kenya.

Chernoff predicts it’ll be busy.

"There's a huge difference between this market and thrift stores," she said. "For one, all items are hand-picked. The vendors have done their research. They'll also have information about the products. It'll be curated and beautifully displayed."

And if it does do as well as Chernoff thinks, there'll likely be more of the same in the future.

You'll find the Spring Vintage Market at 10912 Qunipool Rd. (the spacious meeting room of a Kiwanis Lodge), just a couple blocks from downtown Summerland.