The team behind the monthly St. Adolphe Market, in addition to working hard to create opportunities for vendors in the area to find local customers, is intent on making meaningful donations to the community.

With every month’s market, volunteer organizers Kira Bodnarchuk and Donna Moroz say that a portion of the vendor fees goes right back to the community.

“The St. Adolphe Market has done numerous donations to our community since we have begun our little market,” say Bodnarchuk and Moroz. “We have donated to our school, the daycare in town, and the senior citizens.”

But they say this next donation is the most meaningful so far. The idea started when Moroz and her family went for a walk down the Friendship Trail.

“The trail is so beautiful,” the pair says. “If you’ve never been on it, I highly encourage you to take your family out and explore it.”

While exploring the trail recently with her boys, Moroz took note of the many birds who frequent the area and wondered whether it would be feasible to erect a series of birdhouses.

She and Bodnarchuk then purchased the birdhouses and recruited the smallest members of the community, those from the St. Adolphe daycare, to paint them.

“These birdhouses will now be hung on the Friendship Trail for all to enjoy,” they say. “This donation means the most to us because our whole community gets to enjoy it for years to come, including the children who got to paint them. Our personal hope is that the children who decorated these birdhouses will want to go out in nature and explore to find their birdhouse.”

The Friendship Trail began a year ago when local resident Rick Colette and his wife Henriette decided to clean up a stretch of the bank of the Red River, gradually developing it into one of the town’s most well-known attractions.

Many other members of the community have contributed to the trail since those earliest days, including Jerry Lagasse, Bill Gibson, and Richard Breaut.

The trail is currently home to several distinct areas—teeter-totters, a car made out of logs for kids to enjoy, a memorial rose garden, campfires, and of course the main trail itself which is open year-round.

As for the St. Adolphe Market itself, there is still one upcoming summer event: September 26. It will be the fifth event of the season.

Attendance at the last couple of markets have come in at around 1,000 people. Each one has had 45 to 50 vendors, three or four food trucks, a coffee truck, and a lemonade stand.

“With the weather changing to fall, we will have many vendors to shop from in September,” say Bodnarchuk and Moroz. “The variety is amazing.”

They are now in the process of planning a Christmas market later in the year.

Starting up the market and keeping it going during the pandemic hasn’t exactly been an easy task.

“Running a market during COVID has had its hardships,” the pair say. “But we have had great experiences throughout it. We have had to customer count, make an entrance/exit, and make sure everyone follows the strict guidelines. We have had such support from our community, with members donating their time to help us run the entrance and exit. The greatest difficulty is receiving COVID guidelines days before the market and having to change the way the market is run and informing all our vendors and ensuring everyone is following the orders.”

They say the effort is worth it every market day.

“Our biggest highlight is the compliments we receive from our vendors and community,” they add. “We love being organizers—and when people come up to us, it helps us come back each time and put on a better market.”

Bodnarchuk and Moroz plan to continue hosting the market as long as they can—and as long as it remains a fun experience.