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Pilgrim Place in Claremont goes virtual with Etsy craft sales after fest is canceled - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Four hundred years after the Pilgrims arrived in America, Claremont’s Pilgrims are staying home.

Those English Pilgrims in 1620 encountered few Native peoples, who had been all but wiped out by disease. Here in 2020, Pilgrim Place senior community is on voluntary lockdown because a new virus on the loose.

Pilgrim Place? That’s a nonprofit retirement village made up of missionaries, clergy and social activists. Its roots go back to 1915 and the same Congregational Church founded in New England by the Mayflower Pilgrims. On the 32-acre campus, the two winding main roads are named Mayflower and Plymouth.

You may have heard of its annual Pilgrim Festival, a Thanksgiving-themed event that draws 8,000 attendees from around Southern California for food, craft sales and children’s activities. Festival volunteers dress in Pilgrim garb, a tram is decorated to look like the Mayflower and a play tells the Thanksgiving story.

A little corny, a little charming, but it’s homespun fun. I’ve gone many times, usually walking home with a jar of homemade jam.

Held annually since 1948, the festival, set for Nov. 13-14, fell victim to coronavirus. The decision to cancel was announced in a letter to supporters in June.

“It’s just not wise to invite large groups of people onto our campus at a time when the California Department of Public Health anticipates another surge around the end of the year,” organizers wrote presciently. Correct as it was, canceling the festival has repercussions.

Pilgrim Place in Claremont has been locked down during the pandemic and the popular Thanksgiving-themed Pilgrim Festival was canceled. A fund drive, an auction and an Etsy shop have helped make up the shortfall at the retirement complex. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

“It’s a big blow to us,” Joyce Yarborough, Pilgrim Place’s vice president for advancement, told me by phone. And not simply because it’s a beloved tradition.

The festival’s profit of roughly $200,000 goes to a fund that supports residents who have outlived their nest egg. Those residents can apply confidentially for aid for medical expenses — hearing aids, dental work, a high co-pay for medicine — or other bills.

“It provides people with a sense of dignity. It’s all done with anonymity. Only our CEO and CFO know,” Yarborough said.

Here’s a reason to give thanks: The donor letter prompted an outpouring of response. Donations have topped $100,000, which Yarborough called remarkable.

I’m relieved to hear it: This may spare Pilgrims from standing dourly on street corners, holding black pilgrim hats upside down for change.

There’s more good news. A virtual auction of 28 gift baskets that ended last weekend brought in $5,300, or almost $200 each. “Mini-sales” on the campus for staff and residents have had modest results. And Pilgrim artisans are finding success online.

Yes, Pilgrim Place has its own Etsy shop.

The online emporium is at etsy.com/shop/PilgrimPlaceArtisans. Set up in 2018, it has a five-star rating — you wouldn’t get cheated by a Pilgrim, would you? — and four pages of items, including quilts, earrings, face masks, necklaces, greeting cards, paintings, scarves and pot holders, all handmade.

“This month so far we’ve made $2,070, and we haven’t had a sale yet,” Don Braue, who runs the store, told me by phone Monday. The Black Friday discount will be 10% off.

A retired lay minister and professor of religious history, Braue finished his career teaching computer skills at UPS, with an emphasis on ecommerce. After retiring to Pilgrim Place six years ago with his psychologist wife, Braue saw a way to assist a group that was not online-savvy.

While the Pilgrim Festival is a great market for handmade items, not everything would sell. “The Etsy shop is a way to enable our artisans to sell our goods 363 days a year,” Braue said. “We have a lot of talented artisans at Pilgrim Place.”

The shop is no substitute for the festival, Braue is quick to say, but in 2020 it’s assumed a new importance.

Some residents who had avoided contributing their wares are now doing so. A master potter had just brought in 10 items, Braue said, after concluding they would simply collect dust otherwise.

I asked about the Etsy customer base. Braue said some are locals who would otherwise patronize the festival. Some are relatives of Pilgrim Place residents responding to a digital flier. Others are simply people on Etsy looking for quality items.

“I’m shipping out items all over the country: Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, Iowa, Arkansas, Texas,” Braue said. “We have a growing customer base.”

Reviews are glowing. “Love these masks!…I am going to order another batch!” a customer wrote. One said of a set of potholders: “Even better than the picture!” One praised a shipment of quilts: “This is a true work of art…each is a spectacular design with a beautiful sense of color and freehand quilting unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

If the quilter included a bribe in the shipment, I’m going to be so disillusioned.

Kidding aside, this is as unprecedented a time at Pilgrim Place as anywhere else, and after eight months of lockdown, and without the energy of the two-day festival, its 320 residents must be a little low.

No visitors are allowed. Residents are asked not to leave if they can help it. Amazon and Instacart are doing contactless delivery. Pilgrim Place now sells basic grocery items and mails parcels, curtailing the need to go to the supermarket or Post Office.

Meanwhile, the 120 employees are trying to subject themselves to the same protocol in their personal lives, because they’re mindful of what exposing themselves to the virus might mean for the more vulnerable residents.

“Staff going in and out are the most likely to bring in the virus. We don’t want to do that,” Yarborough said. “No one wants to be the person that brings the virus into our community.”

So far, that strategy is working. Five or six staff members have had the virus, quarantined and returned to work. Three residents have had it but an outbreak was contained.

“They all survived. All were asymptomatic,” Yarborough said. “Our thinking is the viral load has been low. Quite remarkable.”

Well, everyone knows the Pilgrims were hardy souls.

David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, three turkeys. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, visit insidesocal.com/davidallen, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.

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