The Big Country pop-up market will take place from noon – 5 p.m. on Saturday at the T&P Event Center.
Sophomore Lauren Gumm started her own T-shirt business, Wear It to Share It, when she was a freshman. She prints and designs the shirts she sells herself.
“After Follies, I was like people really like T-shirts here,” Gumm said. “So, I was like I’m going to make a T-shirt. It built off of that. I had a Thanksgiving shirt and a Christmas shirt last year and I’ve kept going since then.”
Gumm started going to events as a vendor as a freshman to sell her wares. She said she found herself the youngest person at these events.
“Last year at my first event I showed up and I was the only vendor under the age of 40,” Gumm said. “I was like, ‘There’s got to be other students out there who don’t know how to get involved in these types of things.’ I knew there were other students who had businesses, but I didn’t know where they were.”
That was what inspired her to create an event for students to sell their products. She reached out to the new ACU Founders Club and other students she met who had businesses. From there she organized the event.
Multiple student businesses plan to be involved with the Big Country Pop Up market including: Studio Joy, Pebble & Thread Co., Art by McKenna Judd, MB Boutique, Creations by Karson, Dancing Banana Girl Design, Chronically Brave, Yarn&Thread, All Scrunched Up, Catch All, Ky’s Simple Buys and Sticker Theory Co. The businesses are run by students from both ACU and Hardin-Simmons University.
Junior and President of the Founders Club Karson Tutt will be selling her handmade jewelry at the Big Country Pop-Up Market. She said balancing time with her schoolwork and business is a struggle.
“It is hard being a student,” Tutt said. “I have two other jobs along with my little business, so it is a constant state of going from one thing to the next.”
Both Tutt and Gumm have worked hard to spread the word about the Big Country Pop-Up Market through social media and word of mouth. Gumm said over 500 people have responded to her Facebook add saying that they are coming to the event.
Beyond student vendors, Gumm also reached out to the community. Over 20 other non-student vendors will also be selling products such as clothes, makeup, candles, and crafts at the market.
“It is cool to show the rest of Abilene that college kids can do cool stuff,” Gumm said.
