The La Canoa Improvement Centre hosted one of its regular community projects on Saturday. If offered an opportunity for area residents to shop as well as display their products.
Director of Communications and Marketing at the La Canoa Improvement Centre, Dr. Chereisse Navarro said the Centre is part of the Veronica Roach Legacy Project.
Ms. Roach was her grandmother.
She added that Saturday’s fair is a regular feature at the venue.
“Today is the marketplace. It is an artisan and entrepreneur market that we hold here once a month, usually the first Saturday and it is open to both La Canoa vendors and people from outside the area. We really started this market as a way to encourage people in the community to create multiple streams of income for themselves.”
Dr. Navarro highlighted some of the features of the monthly fair
“So we have free spaces and they can do what ever they like to sell. Whether it is fresh produce, if its baked goods, they can get a space to do that. So we offer a wide range of items here and you will find a lot of them are artisan made, handcrafted things. So stuff that you may not find in a regular store.”
She added that the Centre also has other activities.
“We also sell plants from Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 5. And that is another initiative for the centre to help us fund ourselves and our events. Because we offer free services to the people of the area and we are mostly run by volunteers so that is one of our things to help us sustain our endeavours.”
Dr. Navarro added tht the centre also offers resources, free educational courses and other economic opportunities for the area’s residents.