Hundreds pack Show Me Center for yearly showcase

The "Showcase Roundup at the OK Corral" will have better than OK proceeds to help pay for medicine for needy patients, organizers say.

The Thursday event at the Show Me Center was expected to draw 900 ticketholders and raise around $13,000 for the Southeast Missouri Hospital Foundation. Chuck Stotz, the foundation's executive director, said that makes the event second in success only to the We Can Weekend Auction, which raises money for cancer patients and their families to travel to the Lake of the Ozarks to learn coping skills.

In its 13th year, the showcase's theme was western. Visitors wearing bandannas and cowboy hats moved among 35 food and beverage vendors. Everyone nibbled on samples of ribs, cheesecake, beans and many other kinds of food. They entered the dining area through swinging doors and wandered around bales of hay and wooden fences.

"It is a nice, casual event," Stotz said. "They can hobnob, meet clients and friends and have a fun time."

The foundation has five fund raisers a year, all aimed at helping with patient care at Southeast Hospital.