Friday and Saturday evenings were spent in Elgin as part of the biennial Follies, now in their 28th year, benefiting the Elgin Junior Service Board's many community service projects.
I was invited to be a part of the Follies as one of the Walking Hat Ad Ladies, a tradition celebrated since the 1960's! Sponsors of the event purchase hat ads to be displayed during the meet and greet, raffle and refreshments before the show, and then walk across the stage during the show to promote them once again. These hats are beautifully and creatively made from scratch by hand by the JSB members, and seeing their finished work is impressive! Some even had lights and moving parts!
I also had the opportunity to sit in on one of the MANY practices in preparation for the actual event, and they work so hard in putting together a terrific show. They actually had audience members come back to see it again the second night because it was so entertaining! Creative, energetic and hardworking are all of these folks that work together for a great cause!
(Note: My hat was THE National Bank of Elgin...I was lucky to get a light-weighted hat! And MAN was it sparkly!!!! ;) LOVED IT!)
My thanks to Michelle Gilroy who coordinated this event for me, to all of the women of JSB who were terrific to work with and for (I was also on hand to do makeup and lashes for some of the ladies and young ladies in the production as well), to the amazing staff of Hemmens who go above and beyond, not only to make things run smoothly but to also make everyone feel important (and I've witnessed that first hand on more than one occasion! This one was no different!), and to the wonderful people of Elgin for supporting the JSB and their service efforts. Thank you for being so invested in your community!
I'll have Stats soon!
OK, looks like you got off easy with a smaller hat (grin)... What a cool event! I imagine you need to have very good posture to wear a hat like that for any amount of time.
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