FUN FEST INCLUDES PATRIOTIC PRESENTATION; ANNUAL EVENT FOR SENIORS SET SATURDAY

A patriotic salute to America, featuring Maryann Hamer and Guy Louis of St. Louis, will be just one of the highlights at the 1991 Senior Fun Fest, to be held Saturday at the Show Me Center on Southeast Missouri State University campus in Cape Girardeau.

The special half-hour salute will be presented at 1:30 p.m., and will feature a flag-waving, "hats-off" tribute to the American spirit.

Musical entertainment, dancing, exhibits, a dance contest, and more are in store for the area's senior citizens during the annual fun fest, which will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"A full day of activities has been planned for our guests of honor the region's senior adults," said Donna Gerard, a Southeast Missouri Hospital employee and one of the coordinators of the event.

"The purpose of the event is simple ... we want to salute our senior citizens."

Gerard said that more than 6,000 participants, from Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, are expected for the Fun Fest.

Corporate sponsors for the event, which is being held during Older Americans Month, are Mercantile Bank of Cape Girardeau, Schnucks, the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging, and Southeast Missouri Hospital.

All activities are offered free of charge to adults 55 and over.

This year's senior citizen salute will include a picnic-style lunch consisting of hot dogs, chips, cookies, ice cream, beverage and other light refreshments throughout the afternoon.

The special day gets under way outside the Show Me Center's front entrance at 10 a.m., with music by the Jerry Ford Orchestra, which will perform until 11:30 a.m. Seating will be available.

The Show Me Center doors will open at 11 a.m.

The Golden Slippers band will make three appearances during the day, at 11 a.m., 3 p.m., and 2:15 p.m. A dance contest will include music for the waltz, polka and fast two-step. Prizes will be awarded.

Dave and Pearly Murphy will be masters of ceremonies.

Special entertainment this year will be Hamer and Louis. Sponsored by the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts, Hamer and Louis have participated in shows and festivals throughout Missouri, with an informal show of songs from the early 1900s through the 1950s.

Hamer has written a number of gospel songs, popular ballads and children's songs. She also performs with the Gospel Jubilee in Eastern Missouri.

Louis, who studied at the St. Louis Institute of Music, holds a degree in music education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and has been involved with roles in musical and dramatic productions, and with the St. Louis Symphony.

Both Hamer and Louis are active with the Missouri volunteers in corrections program, and both have performed at the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City.

Other activities during the Senior Fun Fest will include bingo, caricatures by artist Bryan Loy, exhibits from a number of area agencies and businesses, and an exhibit by the Capaha Antique Car Club. Southeast Missouri Hospital's air medical service helicopter LifeBeat will also be on display.

Free tickets for the event are now available at locations in communities throughout the area. In Cape Girardeau, tickets are available at Schnucks, Mercantile Bank, Boatmen's National Bank, Storey's Food Giant, National Del-Farm and the Nutrition Center. At Jackson, tickets may be picked up at Senior Citizens Center and Schaper's IGA Foodliner.

Tickets are also available at Sikeston, Mercantile Bank, Piggly Wiggly and Heritage House Nutrition Center; Perryville, Mercantile Bank and Bank of Perryville; Sedgewickville, Country Mall; Patton, Security Bank of Bollinger County; Marble Hill, Chandler Drug, Twin City Pharmacy and Nutrition Center; Chaffee, Medicap Pharmacy, Chaffee IGA and Nutrition Center; and Scott City, Medicap Pharmacy, Economy IGA and Nutrition Center.