A Green Vendor Fair, promoting environmentally friendly products and services, will be held from 4-7 p.m. next Thursday, April 19, at the Abingdon Ruritan Club, 8784 Guinea Road, Bena.

The Gloucester County Chamber of Commerce will co-sponsor the event with Rappahannock Community College’s Workforce and Community Development Office, said Marlene Cralle, assistant to the vice president for Workforce Development at RCC. The event is free and open to the public.

Approximately 15-20 local businesses are expected to set up booths at the fair, Cralle said, representing a variety of businesses that offer environmentally friendly, or green, products and services such as exterminating services, landscaping, heating and cooling, and a car dealer.

Green products and services will be for sale at booths sponsored by chamber businesses, said chamber executive director Makalia Records, and the event will provide some simple and easy ways to protect the environment.

Several mini-workshops and seminars on green topics are planned. There will be a drawing for door prizes, donated by participating vendors, and bags of favors will be handed out to the first 100 participants.

Representatives from the National Wildlife Federation are expected to attend and speak to guests, Cralle said. The fair is partially funded through a grant from the Greenforce Initiative, a partnership of NWF and Jobs for the Future. A release said that Greenforce Initiative makes resources available to community colleges that wish to implement ideas designed to strengthen green career pathways, increase access to these for lower-skilled adults, and use campus sustainability efforts as a "learning laboratory."

The Abingdon Ruritan Club will sell hot dogs, hamburgers and clam chowder to benefit its Relay for Life team.

For more information, visit www.gloucestervachamber.org/EventPage.aspx, or call the RCC Workforce Development Office at 758-6750 or the chamber office at 693-2425.