Rise Above Poverty hosts 2nd annual Pop Up Boutique

A local, non-profit organization called Rise Above Poverty hosted their second annual Pop Up Boutique at Dumont Plaza, this morning.

“It’s about made in the USA, buy local, and help vendors. We’re all in this together, and a lot of the vendors here are entrepreneurs, and it’s a great way for us to shop with them and the money stays in the community versus going outside of our state.” -Patricia Flowers, Project Director, RAP

Along with entrepreneurs, people who bake and make special crafts like pottery or jewelry, were in attendance.

“I just love all my little girls feeling like a princess and just beautiful. I’m also a hair stylist, so this also goes along with me going along being a hair stylist, and it just all kind of clashes together.” -Rosie Kay, bow maker

Rise Above Poverty only charged vendors $10 for each spot so that they could have a chance to make a good profit.

“A lot of people don’t kind of know how to go by and say where can I sell my idea or my creation, my expression—the things that define me. They don’t know where to sell it at or where to branch it out at. This event right here, it’s a small event, but it gets us out there.” -Kay

Rise Above Poverty doesn’t just do special events such as this to support local entrepreneurs, bakers, and crafters. They also do other special projects within the community.

“We help students buy books, we’ve offered a couple of scholarships to students in MCC and one in California because that’s where our partnership is and that’s where I’m from, and when we founded the organization it kind of started there but here we are. We honor twelve women a year with our Women Who Rock program. We do a feeding program during the holidays, and we just do a bunch of stuff just to help people.” -Flowers