PARIS – It was a lesson that didn’t involve textbooks or lectures. Instead, four high school seniors have spent the greater part of this year planning, budgeting, promoting and organizing a large event.

The payoff for the marketing students is this Saturday, when the DECA Holiday Craft Fair opens at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

DECA, Distributive Education Clubs of America, is an international association of marketing students.

Allison Fox and Staci Cushman of Oxford, Diann Ramsey of Otisfield and Liza Chase of Norway, all third-year marketing students, have worked since spring to put the fair together.

The fair runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, with 160 crafters from Maine and New Hampshire exhibiting. There will also be door prizes, free baby-sitting and pictures with Santa from 12 to 1 p.m. The entrance fee is $1, and people under 12 and over 65 are free.

The school store will be open, so people can buy their Oxford Hills gear.

This is the 32nd year the fair has been at the high school.

Proceeds will go to the marketing program and next year’s fair.

All third-year marketing students are required to do a big project, Cushman said. The four students did all the work for the event, with little help from staff.

“For the marketing teacher, we were like her last priority,” Ramsey said, adding that while the four of them were coordinating the fair, their teacher had two classes to supervise.

After the fair is over, the students will use the experience for their senior projects.

“It gives us exposure to the outside world,” Fox said.

The students started the project in the spring, compiling results from previous years, Cushman said, and looking at funding.

Fox said the students had to be diligent about how they spent money. They recorded every expenditure – even when they shelled out 30 cents to mail a letter.

Later they had to promote the fair and advertise, using newspaper ads and fliers. They also contacted the crafters.

Communication with each other and the crafters was the biggest obstacle, Chase said. Sometimes it was hard working in a group.

Chase added that sometimes an e-mail would get lost in the shuffle, and a crafter would get upset.

“We’re dealing with people who are old enough to be our grandmothers,” she added.

Ramsey said the experience has helped the group be more professional, and they all learned to work in groups.

The students all initially got involved in the marketing program because of the opportunity for travel to national conferences.

Now all four are looking at college, and hope to study marketing.

The four young women plan on working tirelessly this weekend to execute the fair, however, “I think Saturday will be worth it,” Chase said.