By Ariel Waite
Moapa Valley Progress
A group of local women got together for an all-nighter on Friday night for the 11th Bi-Annual Marathon of Scrapbooking. Organized by the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 75, the night’s event offered a 28-hour scrapbooking extravaganza that was also a fundraising opportunity for the Auxiliary. Money spent for admission and raffles went into a general fund that serves veterans.
“Thirty-five percent of veterans are homeless,” said event organizer Susie Fly. “Many of them don’t even have anybody to return home to.”
So, in an effort to show appreciation to these men, some of the money goes into making “Ditty” bags for the veterans. These bags include, among other things, socks, toiletries, and thank you cards.
The Auxiliary also arranges “welcome home” dinners for veterans, donates to schools and the Cappalappa Family Resource Center, and offers scholarships.
Participants came from as far as Las Vegas and Cedar City- one even came all the way from Idaho- to spend a worry-free weekend visiting and “cropping” (as they call scrapbooking).
Among the attendees were Kim Delgadillo and her best friend Lisa Rainford. The two connected at a scrapbooking website, became pen pals, met each other, and now travel to different scrapbooking conventions together.
These ladies declared an informal contest to see who could finish the most pages by the end of the event. Previous weekends have been as successful as 80 or even 115 pages!
Another room was set up with cots and blow up mattresses for anyone who wanted to get some rest, but no one would use them till late in the night.
Most of these women have been scrapbooking for years, and their projects were beautiful. From classy graduation pages to artistic recipe books, works of art unfolded beneath these ladies’ hands.
“It takes a lot of time and a lot of work,” said Scherryl Tanner of Idaho. “But it’s worth it in the end.”
