Learn how to make attractive table ideas for any occasion, at this special benefit luncheon.
Gather ideas for personalizing your next event with novel ideas for table decorating, at “Settings… Unique Tablescapes for Your Home,” Sept. 12 at Forest Hills Country Club, 5135 Forest Hills Road, Rockford.
This fundraising event for Rockford Women’s Club will feature numerous creatively-designed table settings to enhance your fall and winter entertaining, elegant enough for the most discriminating hostesses.
In addition, a marketplace will showcase boutique items such as jewelry, purses, gourmet foods and more – an array of items and ideas you can use to make your party planning easier and your events more appealing.
The marketplace will open at 10:30 a.m., followed by a noon luncheon. During lunch, a style show will reveal the latest ideas for complementing your fall and winter wardrobes, with fashions and accessories from local boutiques modeled by women from the Rockford area.
Attendees will be offered numerous items to bid on from the showcase tables, as well as the chance to take part in a 50/50 raffle.
Proceeds will go towards the preservation of the group’s historic clubhouse at Park Avenue and Church Street in downtown Rockford.
The Rockford Women’s Club came about in the 19th century, the result of a merger among members of at least 20 women’s groups in town, all interested in civic and cultural improvements in Rockford and intellectual growth of their members. Combining the groups would improve their overall effectiveness, it was reasoned; in February 1897, 90 women from 13 clubs voted to federate, and the Rockford Woman’s Club was formed. The clubhouse officially opened in 1918, and has been owned and maintained by the group ever since.
The building houses the Rockford Theatre, which seats more than 800 people, has its own entrance, box office and lobby facilities, and is fully equipped with house lights, striplights, a Steinway piano and a professional sound system. It has been, and continues to be, a venue for both professional and local performers. Entertainers and other celebrities who have appeared here include Ethel Barrymore, Will Durant, Ogden Nash, Amelia Earhart, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Martha Stewart, Hal Holbrook, Leo Kotke and Leon Redbone. The theater also hosts plays, lectures, beauty pageants, dance recitals and classical musicians.
In addition, the clubhouse has numerous meeting rooms, a large boardroom, a garden-level dining room and spacious kitchen. The facilities can be used for dinners, receptions, fundraisers, art events and more.
Rockford Woman’s Club is a philanthropic organization with a long history of projects that have benefitted Rockford. Its current all-club philanthropy is “Sharing Our Closet,” begun several years ago to assist women who have limited incomes but hope to get back into the workforce, and women in general whose budgets make it difficult to spend money on clothing.
In addition, each department has a philanthropic project of its own, which its members support on a regular basis, including Remedies (formerly WAVE), Rosecrance, Project Home Base and MELD.
Tickets are $45. For reservations, call Neva Kelley-Paesani, (815) 637-1220, or send your check to her at 5352 Winding Creek Drive, Rockford, Ill., 61114. ❚