With shopping lists in hand, several shoppers spent Sunday afternoon getting a head start on purchasing holiday gifts.

But bicycles, video games and stocking stuffers had no place on these lists. Rather, the shoppers were deciding between buying bicycles for people in Mali, conquering tuberculosis in North Korea or helping to fund U.S. homeless shelters and food pantries.

Sunday’s Alternative Gift Market, sponsored by 10 Ames churches, allowed shoppers to purchase holiday gifts in the form of donations to local, national and international service projects as holiday gifts.

“[For] people who want to do something different for the holidays, this is one way to do it,” said Brian Meyer, member of the organizing committee for the Ames Area Alternative Gift Market.

Information on a wide variety of national and international projects was available at booths set up at Bethesda Lutheran Church, 1517 Northwestern Ave.

Shoppers were given a shopping list on which they could write the amount they wished to donate to the projects of their choice. In exchange for their donation, shoppers received greeting cards with information about each project to give to the people for whom they bought the gifts.

Shopper Karla Drapal said she heard about the market through her church, Collegiate United Methodist, 2622 W. Lincoln Way.

She said this was her first year attending and she purchased alternative gifts for relatives, both deceased and living.

Seven local organizations including Habitat for Humanity, ACCESS and the Emergency Residence Project were also represented at the gift market. The food pantry at Bethesda Lutheran Church was selected by the national Alternative Gift Market organizations as one of ten projects to receive funding from a pool of money collected nationally.

In addition to donating directly to the projects, Worldly Goods, 233 Main St., was present at the market selling international handcrafts. Ten percent of the profits made on Worldly Goods merchandise at the market was donated to projects sponsored by the Alternative Gift Market.

The Ames Alternative Gift Market was one of 350 markets around the country, mostly sponsored by churches and nonprofit organizations. Meyer said the first market was organized in California to show kids the true meaning of Christmas and giving.

This is the 12th year the Alternative Gift Market has occurred in Ames. In addition to the one-day event at Bethesda Lutheran Church, other churches involved in the organization will hold events for their congregations on the next few Sundays, Meyer said.

This year, 200 to 300 people were expected to purchase alternative gifts at the Ames market.

“In the past several years, we’ve collected $20,000 to $25,000 for these projects,” Meyer said.