Sock hop raises funds for Cape Area Family Resource Center

[NOTE: This event has been rescheduled to 4 to 8 p.m. Sept. 21]

Unpack your poodle skirt and leather jackets for the Cape Area Family Resource Center sock hop.

The second annual sock hop, a benefit for the Cape Area Family Resource Center, will be at the Rose Bed Inn. In case of rain the event will be postponed one week.

This year organizers added an art show and tours of the Rose Bed Inn for a fee.

Last year the Rose Bed Inn raised $10,600 for window replacement to increase the center's energy efficiency. The Family Resource Center works to strengthen neighborhoods in south Cape Girardeau with after-school programs, children's and teen projects like day camps and hands-on learning, and senior, parenting and family programs.

The Rose Bed Inn will be transformed into a party straight from the 1950s.

Poodle skirt, Fonzie look-alike and jitterbug contests will challenge partygoers to participate while contributing to a good cause. All the money raised will be donated to the center. The dance is from 4 to 8 p.m. today.

Joy Rubi, event coordinator, said this year's goal is to raise at least $6,000.

The money raised will help pay back the center's operating fund, which was borrowed against for a new roof. The money was borrowed when the center was in need of repairs to meet inspections. The roof is now finished and is ready to be inspected. A safety window also needs to be installed in the center's basement.

James Coley, Rose Bed Inn co-owner and one of the party coordinators, said there are two reasons the Rose Bed Inn wants to help the center.

"You do it because when you go in there the kids are laughing, happy and comfortable and don't have to worry about being in unsafe conditions," he said. "They say 'thank you, mister, for making our building safe.' That's why you do it."

Coley's second reason is simple neighborly love. The center and the Rose Bed Inn both are on Sprigg Street.

"Programs at the Family Resource Center help my neighbors. They have a direct impact I can see and I can feel," Coley said.

The community has been good to the Rose Bed Inn, a condemned building when owners Coley and Eldon Nattier, who resigned from his position on the center's board to become project manager of repairing the roof, came here nine years ago.

"We have family heirlooms people donated for us to use at the inn. These contributions made our business and daily lives more special. We're just paying it forward with energy, love and time," Coley said.

The party will be held in the garden where banana and palm trees grow. "Our deck is the dance floor," Coley said.

Coley will be giving jitterbug lessons and other community members have pitched in to set the event up for success.

Local artisans participating in the art show have also donated work for the silent auction. Restaurants supplying the food include Global Cafe, Pizza Hut, Buckner's Brewing Co., Ray's of Kelso, Mollie's and Bella Italia.

The Rose Bed Inn tours include the Main House and the Gypsy Rose Building. The Rose Bed Inn follows the grandiose style of a Victorian mansion. It was built by a prominent brick contractor between 1908 and 1910.

Michelle Wallace, the center's new executive director, said the sock hop was a big help last year and served as much more than a fundraiser.

"Last year's sock hop not only raised the funding that was so desperately needed to replace the windows in our building, but it brought together a community. A community who's main goal was to continue rebuilding a centerpiece of the south Cape community which brings in opportunities not only for the area residents, but for those who pay forward with their talents as volunteers," she said.

"Just stepping into the shoes as director of the center within the last month I hadn't personally seen all of the needs our center had," Wallace said.

She said that without the help from the Rose Bed Inn, the center may have been forced to close.

"In my opinion the Rose Bed Inn and her staff has been our shining knights, a true blessing to South Cape and the Cape Area Family Resource Center," she said.

Admission to the sock hop is $20 including "food, dance and silliness," and the house tour is $3. Call the center at 334-8170 or the Rose Bed Inn at 332-7673 for tickets.

cpagano@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133