Bargains help needy overseas | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

From cakes and cardigans in Carterton to urgent needs in Uganda, a new Wairarapa community market is looking to make a difference overseas.

Carterton Baptist Church held its first weekly Community Homegrown Market on Saturday, a car-boot style enterprise in and around the church hall on Belvedere Rd.

Stallholders pay $5 for a table inside to sell new goods, or a space outside to sell secondhand.

Pastor Bronwyn Barlass said the initiative was a way to bring Carterton people together and attract some capital dollars. "For Wellington people coming over the hill, the aim is for this to be one of the venues they come to."

The market supports the Uganda Project, run by mission organisation International Needs and supporting education for children and adults.

Church members Tom and Marg Corby had brought along for sale some of Mrs Corby's homemade knitwear and a selection of toys, many as-new, from children and grandchildren.

Colleen Ireland of rural Carterton brought her bead necklaces, which she was offering for sale for the first time.

"I took up beading because I had arthritic fingers and the specialist said it would be good for them - and it is," she said.

"It's also my little happy place that I retreat to when our little farmlet is a sea of mud."

Next door, Hilary Johnson had some novel crafts - felt rosettes and pipecleaner spiders with removable lollipops.

Helen Dew, a Carterton environmentalist, was selling Heritage Seeds and books on all things sustainable.

"I hope it takes off," she said of the market. "I think every town needs something like this."

Nearby resident Jason Rongonui was taking home a freshly purchased bag of salad.

"They usually have good garage sales here," he said. "It's for a good cause."

Good causes were everywhere, as items for sale included jute bags made by women in poor countries as an alternative to a life of prostitution.

Featherston missionaries Ken and Irla Virtue were saving up for a return trip to the Philippines, where Mrs Virtue was born.

"We have a fruitful ministry there and the churches are wanting us to go back," she said.

The Virtues were cooking food, including spring rolls and fried rice, and a spicy stew that lent a flavoursome aroma to the hall.

Along with cakes, tea, coffee and tables to sit at, the beginnings were there for what the Rev Barlass called a "little food court".

Church groundsman Sid Lord, there as a volunteer, was hopeful things would spread from Saturday's small beginnings.

"If everyone that's here today tells someone, that will help," he said. "And if some of the people who have been here today come back and put up stalls, that's the way it works."