By Rebecca Rider

rebecca.rider@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — Corriher-Lipe Middle School will host a fundraiser vendor fair on Oct. 7. Proceeds benefit a Washington, D.C. trip for the school’s seventh- and eighth-graders.

More than 24 individual vendors of brands like Mary Kay and Lula Roe are expected to attend, as well as local craftspeople.

“It’s a woman’s dream, this thing is,” organizer Kendall Shue said.

If visitor’s put their mind to it, she joked, they could get an entire outfit at the event.

All vendors are donating at least 10 percent of sales to the school trip, which will be held in April 2018. The four-day, three-night trip will show students the best of Washington, D.C., and includes visits to national monuments, museums, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a wreath-laying ceremony in Arlington Cemetery.

Most students at Corriher-Lipe, Shue explained, have never been out of Rowan or Cabarrus County.

“There’s just things you can’t bring into the classroom, you have to go out and see them,” Shue said of the trip.

The sights, including a trip to the Museum of African-American History and Culture, fits well with grade-level curriculums, where students study the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement.

Shue said she believes the lessons both historical events have to teach are very pertinent to seventh-graders. It teaches students to be aware of how they can be influenced by political agendas, and teaches them to stand up for what’s right.

“I think it’s important for the kids to know that it’s not OK to be a bystander. It’s not OK,” she said.

Currently, 100 students are signed up for the trip, which is opt-in. The number makes roughly between 25 to 50 percent of each grade planning to attend.

Students have been selling Cheerwine and World’s Best Chocolate to raise money for themselves individually, but Shue said the school wanted to do several community fundraisers throughout the year to help students who fall short, or might not be able to afford the trip.

“We’re doing anything to get our kids to go to Washington,” Shue said.

The trip costs approximately $569 per student, which will cover transportation, hotel, entry fees and all of the student’s meals. In order to pay for everyone who’s interested to go, Shue said the school and students would need to raise about $50,000.

“We’ve really been fundraising like crazy,” she said.

The Oct. 7 vendor fair will feature sellers including Paparazzi, Mary Kay, Thirty-One, Lipsense, Origami Owl and Stella and Dot. Lula Roe corporate is matching its vendor’s 10 percent contribution to the trip. The event will be in the Corriher-Lipe gym, 214 West Rice St., Landis, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Anyone interested in learning about the trip, or who is interested in donating, should contact Kendall Shue by e-mail at kendall.shue@rss.k12.nc.us.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.