ICOA has been selected to participate in this year’s Alternative Gift Fair, an annual event that offers Ithacans a wide array of holiday presents in the form of charitable donations. The Alternative Gift Fair showcases over 55 organizations, with gifts beginning at $5. Each gift you buy comes with a free greeting card and with an insert about the organization being supported.

The Fair will be held from 11 am to 7 pm, Saturday, December 5, in two adjacent locations: the First Presbyterian Church at 315 North Cayuga Street, and the First Baptist Church at 309 North Cayuga Street.

Gifts available in support of ICOA are as follows:

• $5 will provide writing supplies for a new story, novel, play, or poem by a writer-in-exile.
• $20 will provide a gift of uninterrupted writing time in the form of childcare for an ICOA writer-in-exile.
• $35 will provide a day of safe housing for an exiled writer and his/her family in Ithaca.
• $100 will provide a set of 5 chapbooks by ICOA’s four writers-in-exile to high school libraries in the Ithaca, Lansing, Trumansburg, and Aurora areas.
• $X (unrestricted) will support airfare from Europe to Ithaca for a writer-in-exile.

If you’re unable to join us at the Fair, please be aware that after December 5th, gifts can be purchased online at http://www.ithacaaltgiftfair.org. A downloadable gift card insert will accompany your online purchase.

All gift donations go directly to participating organizations. Sponsorship of the Ithaca Alternative Gift Fair comes from Center for Transformative Action and TCAction, with financial support from Alternatives Federal Credit Union.

We look forward to sharing the holidays with you!