On Wednesday, April 5, homerooms set up in the upper gym for the return of Peddler’s Market.

Peddler’s Market was started in the mid-1990’s, but was phased out in the mid 2000’s. The April recent Early Release Day with the limited schedule became an opportunity for teachers to bring it back.

“Our main objective was to offer students a real world experience of developing a plan for an event and executing that plan. We designed the event to offer students opportunities for working on most of Indiana State Department of Education’s employability skills standards,” said Peddler’s Market Organizer Chris Lindley.

Each homeroom was given the task developing a business idea and plan to execute their ideas.

On the day of Peddler’s Market, by 9 a.m. the upper gym was full of students running shops and purchasing everything from henna tattoos, food and drinks, to video games playing time. There were 25 booths, with each homeroom turning in an accounting worksheet along with their debriefing answers to provide feedback on the event.

“We knew that Peddlers Market would hit standards such as collaboration, self-confidence, self-discipline, decision making, time management, adaptability, integrity, effective communication, professionalism, and problem solving. A second purpose of Peddlers Market was to create an event that students would anticipate and enjoy, thus building a more positive school environment, which has been the main goal of my committee this year. I believe Peddler’s Market has been one of our school year’s most significant days,” said Lindley.

After the debriefing sheets were turned in, the most profitable homerooms were Kassi Harkness’s senior homeroom with $454.75, Brandi Dillard’s freshman homeroom with $241, Melissa Higgins’s junior homeroom with $190, Maria Wishart’s sophomore homeroom with $182.46, and Heather Nichols’s freshman homeroom with $170. The freshmen class had the highest profit for any grade with $718 followed by Seniors with $687.02. Overall profits from all reporting Homerooms tallied $2532.13.