EVANSTON — After canceling Santa’s Workshop in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Boy Scout Troop 911 held a very successful event this year on Nov. 19-20. Seventy-nine vendors filled the Evanston Machine Shop and Roundhouse.

Local Scout leader Jeff Breininger told the Herald, “Seventy percent of the vendors were from Uinta County and the surrounding area; however, we had a vendor that came from Lander and another from as far away as Cedar City, Utah.”

For 40 years, Santa’s Workshop has been a main event of Evanston’s holiday season. Once run by the now-closed Evanston Elks Club, it was turned over to Scout Troop 911 in 2009. Over the years, the event has been held in the National Guard armory, the Elks Lodge, the Evanston Recreation Center, the Machine Shop and now in both the Machine Shop and Roundhouse.

This year, Cub Scout Pack 911 and Cub Scout Committee Chair Amanda Bounds greeted people at the door, collecting $1 donations for entry and entering patrons into raffles for door prizes. Drawings were held approximately every half-hour during the two-day event. The funds raised are used for the local Cub Scout program.

The Order of the Arrow provided a variety of food choices at the concession stand in the Machine Shop as a fundraiser for their program. Randy Barker is the advisor for the honor society.

“An estimated 600 shoppers attended on Friday and 1,800 on Saturday,” Breininger said in an email to the Herald. “It was a very successful workshop. We are already looking to add new value to the workshop next year, perhaps offering free gift wrapping.”