Hempfield High School, 200 Stanley Ave., Landisville, will hold its annual Holiday Shoppe on Wednesday, Dec. 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The event will feature a variety of student-run businesses, and it will serve as an opportunity for classes in the Hempfield School District to share their efforts with staff members and the greater community.

During the event, the Franklin Gymnasium at the high school will be full of cash-only stands. Students will sell various goods at each stand, including wooden button ornaments, hand-painted decorative plates, holiday-themed mason jars, handwritten notecards, embroidered items, pet treats, customized picture frames and holiday gnomes, among many others.

Representatives of the Hempfield Foundation will operate a giftwrapping station at the Holiday Shoppe, and gift wrappers will receive donations throughout the day. All donations will benefit the foundation's Help Thy Neighbor Fund, a program that was introduced in 2009 to support families in the school district that are experiencing financial difficulty. Members of Hempfield Sisterhood will also offer giftwrapping at the Holiday Shoppe. Hempfield Sisterhood is an after-school club that strives to empower young women in the Hempfield School District by organizing community events and spreading positive messages on social media.

The annual Holiday Shoppe is a Hempfield High School tradition that began nine years ago. Every year, the event grows more popular in the community and features more student businesses than the previous Holiday Shoppe. Guests typically include other students and staff members in the school district and local residents, as well as many visitors who travel from beyond Lancaster County to shop for unique Christmas gifts. Twenty-two student businesses will participate in this year's Holiday Shoppe.

In September, students began preparing for the Holiday Shoppe by holding classroom meetings to discuss ideas for new products and review their sales numbers from last year. Once the inventory was revised, the young entrepreneurs started collecting supplies and assembling their merchandise.

"The Holiday Shoppe is an opportunity for each student to use their individual strengths and skills to contribute to a project that benefits the whole class and community," said Ann Jurgensen, a learning support paraeducator at Hempfield High School. "I see the students enjoying the scale of this event. Showcasing their hard work to the community is also a big perk."

The profits from the students' stands benefit extracurricular activities for their classes such as field trips and classroom events, in addition to teachers' budgets for school supplies. Students also use a portion of their sales profits to buy supplies for the next Holiday Shoppe.

"Mini businesses really embrace the challenge to make a great product each year and have a successful day," Jurgensen said. "A successful day isn't just measured in product sales - success is measured in the smiles generated and skills enhanced during this event!"