Hundreds turn out for VintageNOW fundraiser

A bomber hung from the ceiling of the Osage Centre on Saturday evening. A Jeep sat on the floor.

Sailors and GIs and a regiment of Rosie the Riveters darted between tables and the fundraising booths along the perimeter. The VintageNOW charity fashion show was shaping up to be standing-room-only.

“Every chair in the building is out on the floor,” said Aaron Picar, an educator with the night’s host, the Safe House for Women. “That’s more than 700 chairs. ... It’s bigger than last year’s.”

The night’s theme was USO in the 1940s, said Safe House executive director Jessica Hill.

“We wanted it to feel like you’ve entered a hanger for a USO show,” she said. “All the proceeds from tonight are going to our capital campaign fund to build a new shelter.”

Kathie Roth blows a kiss to the crowd at the VintageNOW fashion show Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016 at the Osage Centre.Fred Lynch

The organization, she said, is in need of a larger, more accessible facility.

Picar put it numerically.

“We have 22 beds and one bathroom,” he said. “You do the math.”

But the fundraiser show was expected to top last year’s total of $60,000 raised, Hill said.

Picar said the show represents the biggest fundraiser of the year for the organization.

The Kiss is recreated by On Cue Performing Arts Studio to open the VintageNOW fashion show Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016 at the Osage Centre.Fred Lynch

“But we can’t put on this event without the community,” he said. “We’re honored to both serve and be served by the community. The amount this event has grown shows the amount of support in the community for what we do.”

Which, he said, varies from people who plan to come to the Safe House in advance to people who show up “wearing a bedsheet.”

The show included a tapdance appetizer, a dance number performed by dancers from On Cue Studio and, of course, the fashion stylings of the models, aka “liberty belles.”

But before the show could begin, there was special video message from Naomi Parker Fraley, the original Rosie the Riveter. Now in her mid-90s, she waved from the big screen.

“Hello Cape Girardeau,” she said. “We wish you much success with your fundraising event — Rosie on!”

Janet Boyer enters the runway at the VintageNOW fashion show Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016 at the Osage Centre.Fred Lynch

A voice announced the Axis powers had surrendered, and the flag of freedom flies over Europe.

Then a rumbling beat and a brassy, big-band squall to kick off the party.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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Paige Foeste models for the crowd at the VintageNOW fashion show Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016 at the Osage Centre.Fred Lynch

Osage Centre, Cape Girardeau, Mo.