Shopping Local, Doing Good At Brooklyn Friends Winter Fest

For a Dollar, One Parent Gave Advice About Problems

A Peanuts-style advice stand manned by Brooklyn Friends School parent Lucy Hart with the assistance of her daughter Willa was one of the creative activities at this year’s Winter Festival at the Downtown Brooklyn school. For one dollar, Lucy gave advice about dilemmas big and small. Eagle photo by Mary Frost.

 

By Mary Frost

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — While holiday shopping increasingly means buying online, many Brooklynites prefer to “shop local” at holiday fairs benefiting neighborhood institutions.

In Downtown Brooklyn, the annual Winter Festival brought thousands to Brooklyn Friends School (BFS) on Pearl Street this past Saturday. While many came for the children’s carnival and DJ dance party, serious holiday shoppers made a beeline for the gymnasium.

“I was so impressed,” said Linda Collins, who spent hours walking from table to table with a friend. “We both commented on the quality, and the creativity was outstanding. I bought earrings from a woman who collects New York City sea glass — it’s rubbed and polished by the sea. There was a guy who silk-screens T-shirts made out of bamboo material. They’re sustainable and whisk away moisture — very creative, and soft.”

Tucked in between tables bearing ceramics, handmade organic confections and patchwork scarves — “like wearing a piece of art,” Collins said — was a Peanuts-style advice stand manned by BFS parent Lucy Hart with the assistance of her daughter Willa, a fourth-grader. For one dollar, Lucy gave advice about dilemmas big and small.

“One customer asked about mother-daughter communication,” she told the Brooklyn Eagle. “Someone else had real estate-related job questions.” Hart said that she helped an artist realize that creating art and marketing it were two different skill sets, and developed a morning writing schedule for an aspiring writer.

Hart says that in real life she’s a project manager for a publisher. “I think of life as a project,” she said. “Everything is broken down into steps.”

Daughter Willa said, “If I have a question, it’s usually about homework. She usually knows the answer.” All the proceeds from the Winter Festival benefit the Horizons at Brooklyn Friends School summer enrichment program for public school children in Downtown Brooklyn.

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