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Dear List,

Well, it finally happened, and it was a success.  We had about 60 people come
to our awareness day on Saturday, and I think everyone found it very
worthwhile.  I would like to publicly thank the following people/companies
who participated:

Wild Oats Community Market, for agreeing that celiac disease is a worthwhile
cause and sponsoring this event

Foods by George
Pamela's Products
The Gluten-Free Pantry

who all sent in goodies to try (my kids had stomachaces--the good
old-fashioned ate too many cookies and brownies kind)

Dr. Peter Green, who spoke with everyone personally and addressed the group
with a very informative discussion of current developments in celiac research

Peter-Michael Marino, of the Silly-Yak t-shirt company, who along with his
folks, brought t-shirts (and a bit of humor) to the event  (my kids look
great in the "gluten-free--got a problem with that?" t-shirts)

Diane Eve Paley of the Central Jersey chapter of the CSA/USA, Stephanie
Bertram of the NW Jersey chapter of the CSA/USA and Sue Goldstein of the
Westchester Celiac Sprue Support Group who publicized the event in their
newsletters and helped answer questions at the event.

And finally, those who came to participate, and show the size of the celiac
community.  I believe that the store was somewhat surprised by the turnout,
and hopefully the manager heard enough "I was hoping to come and BUY lots of
GF food, but I didn't see too much," and will get on the back of the dept.
managers to order more.

I encourage anyone who can to try to organize an event like this in their
area.  Remember in "Field of Dreams":  if you build it, they will come.  It
really does work!

Thanks, again to all who participated, and especially to the Wild Oats
Community Market, for hosting this event.

Wendy
Chatham, NJ