Vernon Christmas Village - 12/2/20

Eric Crosswhite chats with Cheyenne Wheeler about Vernon, Alabama's upcoming Christmas Village that will take place Saturday, December 5th from 10 AM - 7 PM at the Vernon City Hall Auditorium

Eric crosswhite: welcome back to sunrise.

We are joined now by cheyenne wheeler, who was one of the organizers of this year's christmas village in vernon.

Good morning, cheyenne.

Cheyenne wheeler: good morning.

Eric crosswhite: thank you for joining us.

Cheyenne wheeler: thank you for having me.

Eric crosswhite: a big event that's coming up this saturday.

What all is planned for?

Cheyenne wheeler: yes.

We have about 35 vendors from lamar county, lowndes county, birmingham, tuscaloosa that are joining us.

They're small businesses.

We're going to have food vendors, some games for kids, santa claus, just a lot of fun stuff.

Eric crosswhite: wow.

What was the idea behind this?

Is this something you guys do every year?

Is this a first?

Explain that.

Cheyenne wheeler: no, this is the first year that we're doing it.

My husband and i opened our business, state of cotton, in february of this year.

We are now a small business and, obviously, covid hit us pretty hard.

We just wanted to do something that would help other small businesses and bring shopping local to other people.

Eric crosswhite: it sounds like a lot of other businesses and the community sort of getting involved with this.

Was that a hard thing to do to, to organize or get people involved?

Cheyenne wheeler: it took a lot of work, but it was not hard to get people interested in it.

Eric crosswhite: what can people expect when they come?

What do they got to do?

Cheyenne wheeler: well, there's going to be a ticket at the door and it goes to charity.

It's going to a couple of local charities and then we're going to have a vote for just a different, random charity that people can pick to give to.

Eric crosswhite: all right.

From there on out, what can they expect as they venture in?

Cheyenne wheeler: we have indoor vendors and then outdoor vendors.

We're going to have plenty of room for social distancing.

We will have hand sanitizing stations and the aisles are big enough to where people can be six feet apart from anyone else.

We have some food vendors that people can visit.

We have apple cider that you can get and sip it while you shop around.

Eric crosswhite: nice.

Cheyenne wheeler: lots of fun stuff.

Eric crosswhite: absolutely.

Plenty of space there being the key for social distancing and everything because i'm sure a lot of people are worried about that.

Cheyenne wheeler: yes.

Eric crosswhite: as far as continuing this, wanting to see this grow, do you think that this could be something that you continue into next year?

Cheyenne wheeler: yes.

Well, we certainly hope so.

We hope people come and visit, and shop local and support small businesses.

We hope it becomes an annual thing.

Eric crosswhite: absolutely.

Give us some idea behind the background.

I know we touched on it a little bit, but what do you hope people take from this event and get out of it?

Cheyenne wheeler: well, i hope that they realize that shopping small is important and when you shop with a local business, you get to see the family that you're supporting.

Amazon is fine, but shopping with somebody that you know is better.

Eric crosswhite: absolutely.

This has been a tough absolutely.

This has been a tough year.

It's a tough year to start a small business, i'm sure.

Cheyenne wheeler: oh, it sure was.

We opened in february, our business, state of cotton, and we had to close three weeks later.

Eric crosswhite: oh, wow.

Cheyenne wheeler: we started a website.

We were blessed to be able to do that.

Yeah, it's been hard to have a small business this year, for sure.

Eric crosswhite: absolutely.

You're hoping this will just cheer people up and get people maybe into next year and to not forget about those small businesses.

Cheyenne wheeler: yeah, for sure.

For sure.

Eric crosswhite: cheyenne, anything else that you would like to add or talk about?

Cheyenne wheeler: we hope to see everybody on saturday, december 5th, 10 to 7.

Bring your kids, one to three, for free pictures with santa claus and we hope you all have fun.

Eric crosswhite: absolutely.

Sounds like a really good time.

Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us today.

Cheyenne