SANDPOINT — Economic students at Forrest Bird Charter High School have not only created handcrafted products, they have created business to sell them.

For the next step, the kids will take their products to market as they seek to sell their wares at the upcoming Forrest Harvest Bazaar.

This year marks the eighth annual craft fair, and will include community vendors consisting of local artisans, crafters, farm produce, and food vendors, as well as the economic student vendor booths.

Social studies and economics teacher Mark Webber said he came up with the idea when he taught in a small Oregon town several years ago, where the total population was 176 people.

“I decided that it would be really neat to do something that would be community run, but also to help some of the kids develop their own business, because the town was dying,” he said.

If he could get the kids to look on the entrepreneurial side of things, he said, it could ultimately help stimulate the economy. So he tasked the students in his economics class to develop a product from scratch, handcrafted by them, and they had to analyze how much it cost to make the product. They went through the process of created a demand schedule and calculating their equilibrium price for the greatest profit, Webber said. Everything the students learned would apply in the real world.

So when Webber moved to Sandpoint, he carried that process over to his economics class at FBCS.

His goal, he said, is to teach the kids that when things are bad, they don’t have to wait for a job. They can create something and either get through the interim between jobs, or ultimately start their own business. And as an extra incentive, the kids get to keep the profit from what they sell at the craft fair. Therefore, the lower their costs are, the more they can profit from their product.

“Some kids walk away with $200 from the craft fair that they earned on their own,” Webber said.

In a previous year, he said, one student made mobiles out of driftwood, fishing line and a stock of beads his mom had from the closed-down Coldwater Creek. Webber said the young man’s cost to make the product was zero, and he made about $300 during the craft fair.

He has seen various ideas over the years, such as a boot rack made of horseshoes — which Webb bought and still uses — as well as candles, soaps and photography. Students have made their own peanut butter, granola blends and more, he said. Baked goods are a staple, he said, and this year will include some baklava and a selection of Greek food, as well as pasta. Candles, photography, gun racks, bird houses, dog treats and more will be on sale at this year’s event as well.

“The kids always surprise me every year,” Webber said.

There will be 30 professional vendors on site in addition to the 31 student booths ran by the 43 kids in Webber’s class.

The Forrest Harvest Bazaar will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10, at FBCS, 614 S. Madison Ave.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.