MEMBERS PREPARE FOR CANCER SOCIETY GALA

When those attending this year's Cape Girardeau County Cancer Society Gala March 4 enter the Show Me Center they will step into a magical forest filled with twinkling lights and even fairies.

On Saturday members of the decorations committee for the gala to benefit the American Cancer Society were hard at work turning sticks, clay pots and greenery into part of a fairy forest in keeping with this year theme "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

"We'll be turning a basketball arena into a fairy woodland," said decorations chairman Andrea Schneider, as she sat on the concrete floor of a cold storage building Saturday morning helping with the centerpieces for the gala.

The centerpieces consist of twinkle light-covered bare branches placed in clay flower pots. That doesn't sound very magical, Schneider admits. But add a little glitter, a darkened room and other touches and she thinks a magical mood will be set.

"The trick is to take ordinary things and make them extraordinary because this is a fund-raiser and we want the money to go to the Cancer Society, not to decorations," Schneider said.

In addition to the centerpieces, florists, plant stores and others are donating or loaning trees, greenery and floral arrangements to create the feeling of a forest.

Schneider said she'll even have her daughters and their friends dressed as fairies for the early part of the evening.

"The Midsummer Night's Dream theme has been really fun to work with and I think will be fun for those who attend," said Mary-Ann Maloney, who is chairing the event with Rachel Keller.

Maloney said plans for the event began about six months ago and about 50 people have been working on various committees to make the gala a successful fund-raiser for the Cancer Society. Last year's gala raised more than $55,000.

About 60 percent of the funds raised at the gala are used for local services and programs and about 40 percent funds cancer research projects, Maloney said.

Tickets for the March 4 event at the Show Me Center are $150 per couple. The event will begin at 6 p.m. with a social hour. Dinner will be from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Rebecca Sharp Catering of New Madrid will provide the food. Maloney said the menu includes chicken in mushroom sauce, beef tenderloin, salad, vegetables and Sharp's famous cinnamon rolls.

Providing the music for dancing from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. will be Infinity, a band from Nashville playing contemporary, rhythm and blues and Motown music.

A silent auction will feature such items as LASIK eye correction procedures, tickets to St. Louis Cardinals baseball games, golf packages, a soccer clinic and hundreds of other items.

These items plus decorating items and other things necessary to put on this event were donated, Maloney said.

"If we didn't have the generosity of the community, we couldn't do this," Maloney said.

IF YOU GO

What: American Cancer Society Benefit Gala

When: March 4, 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Where: Show Me Center

Tickets: $150 per couple, available by calling 334-9197. Deadline for reservations is Friday