 Back |
 By Laura Marlow
For the Leader
The 11th annual Leader Wedding Fair, held Sunday at the Holiday Inn Express in Festus, raised $2,555 for the International Red Cross tsunami relief efforts. Fine weather may have helped bring out the record crowd of participants. More than 1,000 people had the opportunity to check out a wide variety of goods and services displayed by the 64 vendors who attended.
From veils to videographers, tuxedos to Tupperware, flower arrangements to fountains of chocolate – there was plenty to see and do – and taste. A fashion show gave fairgoers an opportunity to get a look at cutting-edge trends in dresses, veils, hats, suits, shoes and the accessories for the entire wedding party.
Attendance prizes were awarded throughout the day by vendors. Models for one bridal shop flung garters into the crowd, while models for the other shop tossed bouquets.
Volunteers who staffed the entrance gates collected the $3 admission fee, which went to the International Red Cross to be used in its efforts to provide relief as well as long-term help to the victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Asia.
Kathy Lass, Director of International Services with the St. Louis office of the American Red Cross, expressed the organization’s thanks.
“I walked in and said, ‘Oh my goodness!’ when I saw how many people were there,” she said. “It was just amazing. It was a wonderful crowd, and we were very pleased to get the donation.”
Lass spoke briefly during the afternoon fashion show, between presentations by the Bridal Shoppe in Crystal City and the Bridal Garden in De Soto.
“It was kind of hard to switch gears,” she said. “There was all this joy and laughter and feeling upbeat; then I had to get up there and talk about something very sad. But I didn’t need to go into very much detail; people know by now what’s going on over there (in Asia).
“Mostly what people needed to hear was that the money would be used appropriately, that it goes directly to the people who are working on the ground over there. The need is tremendous.”
The Leader Wedding Fair has raised $15,757 for charitable causes in its 11-year history.
This story may be available for an Adobe Acrobat PDF download. Click on the link below to visit the site download center. If a PDF is available, the file will automatically open in your browser.
|
|
|