By Kris Rued-Clark

Contributor

MARSHFIELD — An annual tradition, the P.E.O. Holiday Boutique brings together women from P.E.O. Chapters throughout the area to present a day of shopping, visiting, and lunch. Always held the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the event raises money for scholarships and is open to the public.

The event will be held Saturday, Nov. 22 at the Belvedere Supper Club, north of Marshfield on Highway 97.

The day includes more than 20 carefully selected artists plus food and crafts sold by P.E.O. members. The popular cookie walk begins at 1 p.m. where an assortment of cookies baked and donated by P.E.O. members are sold by the pound. The artists will have their works available to browse and purchase from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.

New to this year’s Holiday Boutique will be the Lindners of Tender Shoots Gardens & Greenhouses, a family-operated greenhouse south of Greenwood.

“We will have fresh greenery, wreaths, kissing balls, and garland, anything greenery related,” said Ben Lindner.

The seasonal changes are always busy for the Lindner family. In the fall they sell corn, gourds, pumpkins, and mums, and they also have a corn maze. At the end of October, they begin to make the switch to holiday decorations.

“We start getting ready for Christmas,” said Lindner.

The family has owned the greenhouse for the past six years. During the holiday season, their store will feature wreaths, garland, and other holiday greenery as well as Christmas trees from local growers. Although the family business is open year-round, in the winter they close the greenhouse and have just the store open.

“We have locally made wines and gift items, and then we’ll get ready for spring,” Lindner added. “We will ramp back up in April.” He admits that the work can be hectic. “We get pushed a little bit every day.”

Although the Lindners will not bring Christmas trees to sell at the P.E.O. Holiday Boutique, all their other greenery will be available. They will have wreaths in 24-, 36-, 48-, and 60-inch sizes decorated in traditional red bows, berries, and pine cones as well as wreaths that Lindner describes as “ultra-decorated” in an array of colors.

“We take other decorations and deck them out a little bit more,” he added.

In addition to the fresh holiday greens, other artists will feature many unique offerings such as pottery, handmade soaps and lotions, upcycled and repurposed clothing, jewelry, Christmas tree skirts, and handcrafted pens.

The Holiday Boutique is open to the public and is the major fundraiser for the Marshfield area P.E.O. chapters. P.E.O. stands for Philanthropic Educational Organization, an organization that provides scholarships for women locally, nationally, and internationally.

One of the members described the organization as a “sisterhood of women.” The charge is $1 to browse the artist tables. Lunch will be served from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Lunch tickets will be available at the door for $15, which includes the $1 admission and a gratuity.