OBSERVER Photo by Diane Chodan Lindy Stranahan poses with her parents Evie and Bruce Sievert of Laona. Stranahan’s business is Norwex, whose products help consumers clean with microfiber and water, thereby reducing reliance upon chemicals.

After the mad rush of promotions and crowded aisles during Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, sponsored by the City of Dunkirk offered a more relaxed environment for a change of pace shopping experience. Many small vendors set up tables in the former J.C. Penney building in the D&F Plaza.

The two members of Rockin’ Robin provided live music. Rebecca Yanus, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Dunkirk, and her fiance Brian welcomed people coming into the building and helped them register for a raffle. Brian said, “I don’t work for the city, but I wanted to help Rebecca.” The couple is getting married in August.

A craft table was set up at the front of the building, where children could work on some holiday themed craft projects. John Mahaney sat between his nephew Matthew Herring and his daughter Lauren as they pasted colored foam to create a reindeer decoration. Across the table Eliza Mahaney and Daniel Herring were also working diligently. They all were enjoying the time together.

Business owners offered a variety of unique items at affordable prices. Simply Perfect Promotions, owned by Steve and Janet Szopinski of Dunkirk offered a range of maroon and white merchandise such as T-shirts, caps and hats reflecting Dunkirk High School’s colors as well as items themed to Fredonia High’s orange and black colors.

Lindy Shanahan, the daughter of Bruce and Evie Sievert of Laona, explained her business Norwex. “The purpose is to reduce the use of chemicals. Norwex allows cleaning with the use of microfiber and water,” she said.

Patrice Rolling who sold make-up, also had a “side business” of hand-painted mugs and glasses. “I like to paint on glass, and my husband said I can’t keep all these glasses. So I now sell them.”

Not only did she have mugs painted in holiday themes, she could also customize them with names.

The stories about the origins of these small businesses were as fascinating as the diverse merchandise. Susie Cuke’s Pickle Company of Blasdell offered varieties of pickles made with no preservatives. The company began as a business in 2011 when Michael Gzyl Jr. was a student at Canisius College in Buffalo. His parents had made pickles using a Polish family recipe for years and given the pickles away to friends. As a business student at Canisius, Michael had to create a business plan. Thus the pickle business was born. His mom said, “We are the worker bees and Michael does the finances.”

Retired engineer Howard Wurster’s business is called “Reclaimed Treasures.” He explained, “My son played hockey and instead of throwing out the broken sticks, I reused them.”

Now he purchases broken hockey sticks from a number of teams to create one-of-a-kind gifts such as pizza cutters and bottle openers.

Outdoors, there was hot cocoa, hot dogs, and a food truck. Customers could purchase hand-tied wreaths as well as Christmas trees from Bear Lake Tree Farm in Stockton owned by Emery Masiker. His daughter Amy said, “We participated last year and the mayor asked us to come back. We are happy to be involved in this.”