WORTHINGTON—With even more booths and more to offer than last year, the Daily Globe's second annual Women's Expo Health and Home Show was a crowd pleaser. And though official numbers aren't available yet, many second-time event goers said the turnout was also larger than last year's.
Women—and a few men and children—descended on the Minnesota West Community and Technical College campus with walking shoes and wallets beginning at 9 a.m., while featured presenter Karen Kratochvil kicked off the day with a message of faith.
"There are times when you're not sure if what you're doing is right for you," the retired national sales director for Mary Kay told the crowd. "It's better, when you wake up in the morning, to 'faith' the feeling."
A number of other speakers also presented throughout the day on topics ranging from sleep deprivation to cancer-preventing foods to keeping children safe. Food Columnist Sue Doeden gave two cooking demonstrations on quick, healthy and cheap meals, while attendees were treated to samples of chili, green salad with fruit and nuts and mini muffins.
This year's Expo featured a total of 73 booths, about 20 more than last year, with vendors running the gamut from health food to brightly colored purses. Many visitors enjoyed the freebies: pens, water bottles, bags—especially food samples offered by area caterers and companies like Tastefully Simple, Farleys and Sathers and Schwan's.
"We're waiting for the door prizes," said attendee Vanessa VanDam excitedly after several hours of exploring the two rooms of vendors.
Major door prizes included a five-piece dining set from Slumberland Furniture, a diamond star pendant from Johnson Jewelry and a $500 gift certificate from Hy-Vee of Worthington; but nearly every vendor also sponsored drawings for gift baskets, free services and the like.
One of the event's many unique booths was Lakefield-based Gratefully Living, a Web site based on founder Barb Bakalyar's initiative to build the world's largest grateful prayer chain.
"We just started the first week of March and we've already had a lot of visitors," Bakalyar said. She had a laptop on hand where visitors could use her Web site to publish for what they were thankful for in a few lines. She also sold grateful prayer chains, bracelets with alphabet beads that help the wearer remember 26 reasons to be grateful. "For example, I will say "A" for all I've accomplished, "B" for my boys.…" she explained.
Booths also offered everything from cosmetics to countertops to cutlery, with some offering free services. Gravon's Natural Chiropractic Center offered free spine scans while Perri Torkelson, a student from the cosmetology program at Minnesota West's Jackson Campus painted finger nails and shared information about the school's on-campus salon, The Fringe.
And even with the candies being offered at many booths, health and healthy eating was also an important theme of the day. Sanford Regional Hospital Worthington offered free tests for blood pressure, bone density and cholesterol, while Avera Worthington Specialty Clinics offered free tests of cholesterol and non-fasting blood sugar.
And for those befuddled by all the health handouts, the Hy-Vee booth may have come in handy. Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Hy-Vee dietician Janine Albers was on hand to explain the NuVal system, now available at the Worthington Hy-Vee. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods from one to 100, with 100 being the healthiest.
"It's really a great tool for consumers to make good choices," Albers explained.