Grace Episcopal Church’s Holiday Bazaar

Grace Episcopal Church is shown on East Broadway Street in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, April 27, 2021. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2021.

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Posted October 29, 2021 | By Rosemarie Dowell
Special to the Gazette

Ann Anderson has been a part of Grace Episcopal Church’s annual holiday bazaar for so long she remembers when the popular event took place at the Harrington Hall Hotel on Main Street and not the church.

“We didn’t have a parish hall back then so we had it in the lobby of the hotel,” said Anderson, 86, who was baptized at the historic downtown church when she was a year old. “I remember helping my mother, Clara, set up for the bazaar when I was a little girl.”

That was back in 1946 and ever since Anderson has been a regular mainstay at the event, eventually lending her talent as a professional floral designer to create thousands of holiday displays, wreaths and centerpieces for the bazaar over the years.

Grace’s 75^th annual Holiday Bazaar, a fundraiser for the Episcopal Church Women (ECW), will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 13 at the landmark church, at 503 E. Broadway St., Ocala.

Besides floral arrangements, patrons will find a cornucopia of homemade fall and Christmas décor and gift items created by church members. There will be baked goods and meals to go too, as well as raffles for gift baskets and a Christmas quilt, along with a make-and-take craft for kids, said Mary Baggs, a key organizer of the event.

Gently used holiday decorations will be available as well.

This year, visitors who make a $10 donation can also ring the church bell prior to services during the Advent season, which begins Nov. 28. The church’s iconic entry, with its familiar red doors, will also be decorated for the holiday season and visitors can have their Christmas photo taken for a $10 donation as well, she said.

“Our beloved red doors are always open and having a family photo taken in front of them is a great way to celebrate the holiday season,” said Baggs, a member of the church for the past 26 years, who recently retired from AdventHealth Ocala.

“Who wouldn’t love to ring our church bell during Advent season ,” she said. “It’s a way for us to honor the history that’s happened here.”

Last year, like so many events, the bazaar was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so this time around Anderson is thrilled to see its return.

“I love the bazaar and I’m so glad we’re having it,” said Anderson, widow of the late Dr. Edward Anderson, an Ocala dentist. “I love doing flowers and I love the ladies of the church.”

“The bazaar helps us help women and children in need in the community,” she said.

This year, as a nod to her impact on the bazaar’s success over the past six decades, Anderson, the mother of three adult children, sons Nick and Tom Anderson, and daughter Merrill Anderson, will have her own individual table set up, lending her expertise to patrons who want to design their own centerpiece.

“I’ll have the greenery in them already,” said Anderson, former owner of a floral design shop called Ann’s Personal Touch. “Then I’ll help them choose decorations and bows to add as they like.”

Grace Episcopal Church was established by six families in 1849 and has been at its present location on East Broadway Street since1905, when its original sanctuary on Washington and Orange streets was taken apart by carpenters and rebuilt on the new site.

Soon after, in 1907, Anderson’s grandfather joined the church. Her father, Dr. Thomas Henry Wallis, grew up in the church as well and started his medical practice in 1929 during The Great Depression.

For the octogenarian, Grace has been a central part of her family’s life for nearly 115 years.

“It’s an amazing church with wonderful people and I’m so glad to be a part of it for so long,” said Anderson.