Artists needed for senior center fundraiser Saturday

HOUSTON — With the recent approval of proposed tax breaks for seniors and disabled veterans, Mat-Su Valley residents have demonstrated their concern for the local elderly community, yet Mid-Valley Seniors Inc. seems to be suffering.

In a recent Frontiersman article, Helen Baggett, the wife of senior center founder Frederick O. Baggett, wrote of the struggling facility that serves the elderly in the Big Lake and Houston areas. The center celebrated its 30th year in existence in 2014, but it may not stand for the next 30, Baggett said, if support dwindles.

Needs range from volunteers to help with fundraising or serve on the Board of Directors to translators for residents who speak Russian, Ukranian, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Alaska Native Languages.

But, this weekend, the greatest need is for artists. At Top Drawer in the Meadowood Mall from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Oct. 11 the senior center and Valley Fine Arts Association will host an art show and festival to benefit Mid-Valley.

Currently, there are just three artists signed up to sell their art during the day, and just 10, including those three, will participate in the “quick draw” event at 2 p.m., composing one piece of art each in one hour to be auctioned off at 4 p.m., along with other donated pieces.

Former VFA vice president Jim Leach, an artist himself, who also served on the senior center board, recommended a benefit art show to senior center site manager Lisa Byrd this spring, he said. Byrd immediately took to the idea, but said the center has not yet received “quite as much help as we’d hoped.”

There is still time, however. Interested artists or volunteers can contact Lisa Byrd at 892-6114 or mvsc@mtaonline.net.

The art show and festival is in the west or “studio” side of Top Drawer, an area of just under 5,000 square feet reserved for events like this.

“Our goal is to kind of be a community center in a way, and an arts and science center for kids and anybody else to just come in and use,” said co-owner Linda Lockhart.

The retail side of the store, too, as Leach said, “has a little bit of everything.”

“Our store is really unusual,” Lockhart said. “People come in and go, ‘what is this?’”

Lockhart described the shop as something like a cross between a general store and a thrift store, but more “upscale.” Top Drawer sells items such as designer clothing, costume jewelry, furniture and nice craft supplies at or around “thrift store prices,” Lockhart said. Several works by art show participants also are on display in the shop, Byrd said.

Todd Skiff at The Lumberyard Deli right next door also will be a part of the group effort to support Mid-Valley Seniors and the community by offering a special menu for the event. Andwill act as the auctioneer for the festival.

Top Drawer is in the old Spenard Builder’s Supply building on Big Lake Road.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.