Christmas Market at Community Center

A number of people got a head start on the East Ridge Christmas Parade by attending the Needy Child Fund’s Christmas Market at the Community Center, Saturday afternoon.

Santa was on hand and youngsters were flocking to him to get their picture taken.

Dozens of vendors were at the market offering all manner of Christmas crafts and other goods and services. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Needy Child Fund.

For the past several years the Christmas Market was held in conjunction with the Christmas Nights of Lights show at Camp Jordan. With that event having moved this season, the market will be at the Community Center, organizers said.

It’s not too late to prep for the parade, as the market will be open until 5 p.m.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.