Tift Park Community Market marks one-year anniversary | PHOTO GALLERY

ALBANY — Organizers of the weekly Tift Park Community Market, which celebrates its one-year anniversary Saturday, say one of the primary factors for the market’s success has been the hands-on, hands-off approach of the city of Albany.

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“The city gave us the opportunity to do the market, then they backed away and stayed out of it,” Friends of Tift Park board member Ben McCrary said Thursday afternoon. “The market has become a perfect example of a community program, one that the private sector has run.

“We went into this with the idea that we’d let it become what it would become. We started it at the seed level and just let it grow. We’ve tried to let the vendors and the patrons decide what it would become; we’ve just been careful not to let it become a flea market.”

Stephen Brimberry, the founder of the Friends of Tift Park group and the heart and soul of the Community Market, said the experiment that started at the venerable and historic park a year ago has, in some ways, gone even better than he hoped.

“Look, when we started this, one of the problems everyone said that we’d encounter would be a problem with the homeless and the transient population,” Brimberry said. “As a matter of fact, a lot of the homeless folks actually show up on Saturdays and help the vendors unload and set up.

“The city has taken a hands-off approach with the market, but they’re still involved. They keep the park up; they clean the restrooms; they’ve responded to any requests we’ve had. That’s why we call this such a success, and it definitely has been a success. We’ve gotten exposure for the park, and we’ve had so many local citizens and visitors from other communities and even other states tell us that we’re doing things right.”

The Tift Park Market has to compete for vendors and patrons with any number of events during the year, but the community-run gathering has one huge advantage: Vendors pay no fees to set up and sell their wares.

“There are some days that I may come out here and sell nothing,” said Cile Woodward, who sells photographs of old homes that became a passion for her in the 1990s. “But, except for the gas for the trip, there are no costs. And there are always going to be people I haven’t seen in a while or people who have become regulars.

“I just wish I could find a way to charge people to look at my photographs. I have tons of people who’ll stand and look at them and ask all kinds of questions.”

Martha Bowden and her husband, musician Wimpy Bowden, have become the “jams and jellies” of the weekly community market.

“He jams,” Martha Bowden said of her husband, who lines up local musical acts — or plays himself — to entertain during the market. “I provide the jelly.”

Martha Bowden’s Martha Jane’s Jams and Jellies, which she started 17 years ago while living in Florida, has become a fixture at the market. The Bowdens say their little cottage industry would not exist without the local event.

“We got involved with the Community Market when Stephen posted on Facebook that the city was thinking of selling part of the park and putting a dollar store on the property,” Martha Bowden said. “He was originally talking about a farmers market, but I told him about the arts and crafts fairs we went to in Jacksonville, and the decision was made to expand the market.”

Adds Wimpy Bowden: “This has helped our business tremendously; in fact, we probably wouldn’t still be doing it without the market. But this whole concept is something Albany’s needed for so long. Even if people don’t spend a penny, they can come out and be entertained, see people they haven’t seen in years, chat with neighbors. And the cool thing about it for the people who come regularly is it’s not the same vendors from week to week.”

Brimberry said the market averages 45 vendors each week, from a low of 20 to more than 50.

Erma Wilburn with the Southwest Georgia Project’s Youth Farmers and Community Builders program, said the Tift Park Market also offers an opportunity for youngsters like 14-year-old Johnathan James and 9-year-old Jalen Webb with urban backgrounds to learn about farming.

“We emphasize agribusiness with our program, but we also offer opportunities for children — usually children who are detached from agriculture — to reconnect with the land,” Wilburn said. “There’s a spiritual element as well as a business element.”

Johnathan said he’d helped his grandmother grow okra, tomatoes, squash and peas in her home garden, but being involved with the Southwest Georgia Project and the Tift Market offered him an opportunity to see the business side of agriculture.

“I definitely think (growing crops) is something I’d like to continue in my family for generations and generations,” the 14-year-old said. “It’s possible that I will consider a career in agriculture.”

Jalen said he’s enjoyed having the opportunity to help program participant “Mr. Fantastic” (Gary Richardson) sell his produce during the Tift Park Market.

“We also expose our program participants to what’s available in the industry,” Wilburn said. “They participate in growing community gardens and actually make a little money for their work. It’s a well-rounded, rich experience for our participants.”

Another element of the weekly Community Market is providing a showplace for nonprofits. Sisters Stacey Driggers and Shelia Knight have been promoting and signing up runners for their annual “Run for Your Lungs” (Jackie’s Run for Life) benefit run at the Tift Park event. (Check out Run for Your Lungs on Facebook or visit the runforyourlungs.org website.) The run is held at Lake Blackshear each year to honor the memory of Stacey and Shelia’s parents, both of whom succumbed to lung cancer.

“What we do with funds raised from Run for Your Lungs is give $1,000 each month to someone who is impacted by lung cancer,” Knight said. “We also try to raise awareness about lung cancer.”

The sisters have even picked up participants by setting up a booth at Tift Park.

“The (Snickers) marathon and the Pink Run come by here, so we were able to get some of the folks who ran in those events to sign up for Run for Your Lungs,” Driggers said. “We’ve signed up runners here, we’ve gotten donations and we’ve been able to tell our story. The Community Market has been perfect for us.”

Allen VanHook, who is a regular vendor during the Tift Park Market and a Friends of Tift Park member, said the potential for growth at the Community Market is dynamic.

“Even with the media attention and word of mouth in the community, there are still people we run into who say, ‘I hadn’t heard anything about this,’” VanHook said. “That’s too bad because, more than anything, this is an excellent social opportunity for the entire community.

“We’re planning a Christmas in July event (July 25) and a tailgate party at the start of football season. There’s no limit to what we can do. We meet with our vendors regularly to come up with ideas.”

For the first year, those ideas have worked nicely.