By Dee Camp
The Chronicle

     OKANOGAN – Health, home, beauty and financial information for women will be presented at the second annual Best for Women Fair this Saturday, March 6.
     The event will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the high school cafetorium, 244 S. Fifth Ave. Admission is free.
     Entertainment will be by Okanogan Valley Nashville Stars competitors and the Red Hat Society.
     The event, sponsored by the Okanogan Valley Soroptimist Club and Omak Clinic, features 19 vendors.
     Soroptimist Marie Falmo said the group expects more than 100 people to attend.
     “The Best for Women Fair came about because it is very much in line with the mission of Soroptimists: Improving the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world. ‘Best for Women’ is the tagline of Soroptimist International of the Americas.”
     A raffle of jewelry, donated by Harrison Jewelers, Omak, is planned, as is a silent auction, she said.
     The club recognized that a health fair would touch on only a portion of the issues important to and of interest to women.
     “We wanted to create something more than that,” she said.
     The group retired its twice-a-year spud luncheons and saw the fair as an opportunity to provide service to women and raise money through a salad luncheon, Falmo said. Lunch costs $6.
     “We were pleased with the 2009 fair and are very excited with the changes we’ve made for this year,” she said. “We have many returning vendors and a few new ones.”
     As of late last week, vendors were the Omak Clinic, Expressions Hair Design, Day Spa and Tanning, Lia Sophia Jewlry, Omak Junior Civic League, TOPS, Beads and Things, Mary Kay Beauty Consultant Leah Dowd, Seams Right Quilt Group, Okanogan Family Planning, Okanogan-Omak Branch of the American Association of University Women, Silver Sage Spa, Country Financial, AFLAC, NCNB, Curves for Women, Old World Salves, The Support Center, Yoli distributor Pam Leslie and Omak School of Karate.
     Among those donating silent auction items are Ulrich Drug, The Rusty Shovel, Derina’s Flower Basket, Rawson’s, Wallwebbers, NCNB, Koala Street Grill, J&S Drugs, Gene’s Harvest Foods, Steve’s Coffee Express, Dr. Robert Nau and Hair Unlimited.