Shoppers will have an opportunity this weekend to buy an alternative gift for that hard-to-buy-for person on their Christmas list while benefiting someone else in Ames, another state or another country.

The 11th annual Ames Area Alternative Gift Market will be open from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Nov. 11 at Bethesda Lutheran Church, 1517 Northwestern Ave.

The market, sponsored by 10 area churches, will allow consumers to choose from a wide selection of thoughtful gifts. Gift seekers can buy gifts in another’s name, adding another giving dimension to Christmas.

People can choose among hearing aids for hearing-impaired children, houses or shares of houses for flood victims in Nicaragua or an acre of Colombia’s rain forest.

Recipient will receive cards telling them a gift has been given in their honor.

“It’s a different way of getting things for people who are really hard to buy for,” said Brian Meyer, Alternative Gift Market committee member and member of Bethesda Lutheran Church. “It allows people a chance to [give gifts] in a way that is meaningful.”

Consumers can also benefit local residents by contributing to any of several organizations. These include Bethesda Community Food Pantry, Story County Habitat for Humanity, Emergency Residence Project, ACCESS, Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance Cooperative, Self-Help International, Generosity International and Worldly Goods of Ames, Meyer said.

Through UNICEF, people can purchase medicine, winter clothing, food and water purifiers for Afghan refugees affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, he said.

“There are so many projects in New York helping the victims there that we forget there are innocent people in Afghanistan who are hurting,” he said.

Katy Seidel, committee member and member of the First Baptist Church, 200 Lynn Ave., said the Ames Area Alternative Gift Market is part of an international organization that began in 1980 in California.

“It was formed by a woman wanting to get children involved with the spirit of giving,” Meyer said.

The Alternative Gift Market was introduced to Ames by the Collegiate Presbyterian Church, but it now involves 10 local churches, Seidel said. They are Bethesda Lutheran, Collegiate Presbyterian, Collegiate United Methodist, First Baptist, First United Methodist, Friends Meeting, Northminster Presbyterian, St. Cecilia Catholic, Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ-Congregational, she said.

“[The national organization] gives us a list of international organizations, and then we add our own local groups,” Seidel said.

More than $20,000 was raised last year for local groups, Meyer said.

Seidel said that while the committee has no monetary goals, the event will be successful if more people are made aware of alternative ways of Christmas shopping.

“The biggest benefit is the good it does,” she said.

“A side benefit is the fellowship of people working together.”