All hands on DECA with the 4th annual craft fair
As patrons buzzed around the Wareham High School gym, students worked behind the scenes organizing, collaborating and running a massive craft fair.
The annual craft fair was held Saturday, Nov. 13 and was ran by DECA students. With dozens of booths with crochet items, jewelry and more, creativity was on display at every corner.
DECA, which stands for Distributive Education Clubs of America, is an organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management. On Saturday, the Wareham High School branch of the organization was hard at work ensuring their craft fair featuring 56 vendors selling a variety handmade items, ran smoothly
Lisa Cunha, a business and marketing teacher and the advisor for DECA, said the students did all of the work. The money the students make at the fair off of booth fees, concessions and 50/50 raffles will go back toward future trips.
"This is the most organized that we've ever been," she said. "Our students are mostly repeat students who know what they're doing. I give them kudos because I literally just sit back and watch."
Two leaders of the event were seniors Pricilla Ross and Sienna Cabe who made sure the tables were in order, helped with the raffles and assigned jobs to other DECA students. The pair are no strangers to the craft fair game, having participated the last three years.
Ross, who plans on pursuing business in college said through the process she learned how important communication is when organizing. She said the fair helped her realize what she wanted to do with her future.
"I really like all the behind the scenes stuff— like the planning," Ross said. "No matter what field I go into with business management I'll always have the aspects I learned from the craft fair."
Each vendor donated one item to the club's silent auction. Cabe said seeing all of the tables set up and the event in full swing felt good. She said that with organizing, communicating and handling money— it all comes together in the end.
"It was a lot of work in the beginning to plan everything but I think it turned out pretty well," Cabe said.
From her point of view standing by and watching her students work, Cunha highlighted the opportunity those running the event had to take skills into the real world. Watching so many community members leaving with bags of goodies made her proud.
"It's great to have the community see what we're all about— like we have alumni coming through. It's just a huge sense of community," Cunha said.











