It's All About Them Girls

Photo by Bridgette Morris

It was all about the ladies at the Women’s Expo held on Concord University’s campus on Wednesday, April 1. The event took place in the Ballroom of the Jean & Jerry L. Beasley Student Center, and was organized by the Phi Delta Pi fraternity brothers. The doors opened at 2:30 p.m. and were to close around 6 p.m. that evening.

The Women’s Expo provides women with the chance to get to know businesses in the local area that they perhaps did not know of before, to do a little shopping, and functions as a platform for those women and businesses to network with each other.

The fundraiser chair of Phi Delta Pi and head organizer of the event, Nathan Wilcox, says that the fraternal organization held the event to bring “a little more culture to Concord,” and that they wanted to show that they could do more than “gender specific” fundraisers.

There were 35 vendors expected at the event; however, only 10 had arrived at the start of the expo. Wilcox said he expected more to trickle in as the event progressed.

Wilcox mentioned that the fraternity brought in vendors that they thought the Concord community would enjoy. Among the vendors present were a couple jewelry booths, Avon, and 31 Handbags. Wilcox said that their most popular vendor was Damsel in Defense, which sold self-defense items to women. The home fragrance company Pink Zebra made an appearance at the expo as well.

Lynn White and Ranee Short, local representatives for Pink Zebra, had their Soy Wax Sprinkles on display. Customers can mix these wax sprinkles together to create their very own scents. White says that Pink Zebra has up to 2000 recipes to date. She also explained that one of their purposes for attending the expo on Wednesday was to recruit new representatives for the company. She says if anyone is interested to contact her at (304) 922-1539 or visit their website at fragrantzebra.com.

Premier Designs Jewelry, a direct sales company, also made an appearance at Concord. Norma Vermillion was there representing the company. Premier Designs does home shows. Norma says that these shows are “an opportunity to have a fun time with girlfriends while giving them free jewelry.” Vermillion also uses the shows as an opportunity to minister to young women who need friendship in their lives.  She says it is “[…] just an opportunity to show them that they are special. […] Jewelry is the way to meet people.” She explained that her reason for attending the expo was to network with people in the community and other businesses as well. To know more about Premier Designs Jewelry contact Norma Vermillion at (972) 741-4418, or visit her website at norma.mypremierdesigns.com.

Overall, Wilcox felt like the Women’s Expo went well, “Hopefully we [brought] something to the students of Concord that they enjoy. Everyone likes to shop around for stuff that you normally wouldn’t find in town or at Walmart.” He continued to say that if everything went well this go around that the fraternity would possibly bring back the expo next semester. There was also mention of Phi Delta Pi holding a possible Super Smash Bros video game tournament or a karaoke night later this semester.

To find out more about Phi Delta Pi or any of their future events contact Logan Knight or Marcus Murrell on Facebook.