1904 World's Fair A Success

The 1904 World's Fair was a huge success!  ...yes, that's right--The 1904 World's Fair! 

Of course, we're talking about the World Bird Sanctuary's Fete du Feather version of the Fair.

Saturday, May 7, 2011, was our re-creation of the World's Fair that put St. Louis on the map in 1904.  

Many of our guests joined in by wearing period costumes and posing in our photo booth

We had our own version of The Pike, served foods made popular during the original 1904 Fair, played games based on popular games of that era, held critter races commemorating living conditions prevalent at that time in history, had a photo booth offering sepia photos for fairgoers, sampled food stations offering cuisines from some of the many countries represented at the Fair, and many other activities too numerous to mention

 Our "Critter Races" reflected some of the living conditions encountered at the Fair in 1904

Our staff and volunteers were dressed in period costume, and many of our guests joined in the festivities by coming dressed in period clothing--some of them in authentic outfits dating back to 1904!

 Naturalist Sara Oliver holding Flip, an unreleasable Red Shouldered Hawk admitted through our wildlife hospital

Guests browsed the merchandise offered in our silent auction--some of them bidding fiercely to win the item of their choice.  As our auctioneer said "...friendships are put on hold at an auction!"

 The bidding was hot and heavy for many of our live auction items

In addition to the competition normally expected at a live auction, ours was enlivened by our Assistant Director, Jeff Meshach's, demonstration of how to use the treadmill that was one of the premier items up for auction.  We believe there were many bids offered just to see how long they could keep him running!

 Assistant Director, Jeff Meshach, ran the treadmill as long as people kept bidding

Our thanks to all the staff and volunteers who worked so hard to make this bi-annual event a great success. 

 Our hardworking staff and volunteers who helped make this evening possible

Above all--our heartfelt "thank you" to those generous individuals who donated the many items up for auction, and to those wonderful guests who joined us for the evening and bid so generously on the items offered.

Mark your calendars for the second Saturday in May 2013 when we do it all over again with a new theme.