By Jessica Canning, Vada Clark, Kallie Gregg, Shelby Meredith and Mary Williams, First Flight Journalism Camp
As you walk into Aviation Park on a summer Tuesday morning, an upbeat tune in the distance catches your attention. A child dances on the sidewalk, grinning from ear to ear as her parents capture the moment with their cellphone. The musician strumming the ukulele jumps with her while other visitors laugh and cheer them on.
Welcome to the First Flight Market in Kill Devil Hills, which takes place on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. until Aug. 17. There’s more to the OBX than just the beach, thanks to a retired teacher, a local artist fresh out of college, a young mother selling baked goods and other vendors who transform the well-known skate park into a place where people young and old, native or not, can enjoy homemade ornaments, soaps, honey, produce and more.
“I’m not one to sit around the house,” Cindy White said. “This is a way I can get out and have fun.”
White uses lasers to cut out shapes in wood and make things like ornaments, jewelry and bookmarks for her Carolina Cutting Company. She’s a retired teacher from Perquimans Middle School and learned about the First Flight Market from a friend.
Eden Rayburn, who had a pink table loaded with treats such as blueberry muffins, cookies and sourdough bread, heard about the new market from her dad, who works for the town. Sitting at her pink table with her young daughters doubling as eager assistants, she cheerfully explained that the market was helping her launch a new business, “Sweed Sweets.”
“I have to bake all day the day before, then I can just pack it up at night and bring it in the morning,” Rayburn said of her process for getting ready for the market.
Rayburn added that she enjoyed seeing the other vendors and their unique offerings at the market. Just around the corner from her booth were Brent and Charlotte Noltemier, a father-daughter duo with Coastal Art by Brent.
Brent does watercolor and acrylic paintings, using old pieces of sand fence to make the frames. In the other half of the booth, Charlotte – a student at First Flight Middle School – offers smaller items, like keychains and stickers.
“I kind of draw inspiration from my daily life,” Charlotte said. “I like to put my art out there.”
Best of all, when her art gets purchased, half the proceeds get donated to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.
“She donated $200 to the aquarium recently,” Brent said.
Bringing together sellers and buyers is what the market is all about. Meredith Guns, who serves as the KDH Planning Director, was busy helping with logistics on a recent Tuesday morning as vendors set up their booths.
Guns explained that the First Flight Market came about when local citizens approached the town board about hosting something like the popular farmers markets at Dowdy Park in Nags Head and in downtown Manteo. Town officials agreed that using Aviation Park to test the concept this summer would be great for local business owners, residents and visitors alike.
With little time to plan, the town put out a call for vendors for this five-week trial. Guns said about 38 vendors usually display their wares, with people learning about the event on social media, local radio stations and through word of mouth. The early success of the new project has town officials eager to continue the idea for all of next summer as well as adding a holiday market.
“It’s been really fun,” Guns said. “A lot of these vendors are local and they make their own art or food. We’ve got microgreens. We’ve got homemade sauces. We’ve got homemade artwork. They’re just really cool people to get to know.”
As COVID restrictions challenge local businesses, open-air markets are a good way for vendors to continue promoting their brand. Guns said some visitors wear masks to the market and some do not, but the town also has made sure to keep 10 feet of space between booths to help keep people safe as they shop.
Brenda Raper of River City Microgreens has been happy to have another outlet to offer her hydroponic produce and local honey following a year of slower sales because of COVID. Paul Mazzei with Nature Out Loud shared a similar story about the pandemic, which forced the children’s musician to miss out on numerous gigs.
So when plans for the First Flight Market were announced, they were excited to get out there and join the fun.
“The vendors are like a community,” said Bonita Cuthrell and Renee Hodges from their Hippy Dippy Goat Soap booth. “We all kinda look out for each other, stay connected and communicate about fairs and festivals and stuff like that.”
These students attended the Journalism Camp offered by Dare County Schools as part of the special summer enrichment program. They spent five days working with newspaper and yearbook adviser Steve Hanf in the FFHS journalism room.
