Whether making up a missed opportunity or looking for a second time around, women of Demopolis will have an Expo all to themselves this weekend as the Southern Women’s League of Demopolis hosts the first Women’s Expo Sunday at the Demopolis Civic Center.

“I went to the one in Birmingham and it was great,” Chrissy Brooker, marketing director at Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital, said. “If this one is going to be anything like what it sounds, it’s going to be great too.”

Brooker said the hospital will have a booth at the Expo, providing free screenings for blood pressure, blood sugar and others, as well as information on the many services the hospital provides.

Additionally, the Expo will feature giveaways and vendors representing businesses by women and for women.

“We will have women who are in business, we’ll have a fashion show and we’re hoping Curves will be there. The Wellness Center at the hospital has agreed to do some screenings and Frances “Spook” Maverick from the Red Hat Society will be there,’ Patti Thomas, one of the organizers of the Expo, said.

Additionally, David Lumpkin of the Birmingham area, will host a hair show.

The local Expo was the brainchild of Thomas, who attended the Women’s Expo in Birmingham but realized many from this area may not have been able to go.

“I went to the Women’s Expo in Birmingham, but I thought, Demopolis is so far away and we have this beautiful Civic Center, why not have an Expo here,” she said. So she gathered a few friends to brainstorm and find a way to bring a Women’s Expo to Demopolis – and from there she and four other women decided the Expo should be a beginning to something more.

Thus the Southern Women’s League of Demopolis was born.

“We wanted something started here in Demopolis for the good of local women and young girls,” co-founder Virginia Norman said. “We want to provide networking for women and help women to be able to excel in different ways, through scholarships or business, or women who stay at home, to help them find ways to excel as well.”

The league was founded in January to offer a way to help women throughout the area in a variety of ways.

“Basically, we’re women promoting women,” Thomas said.

The group has made application for 501-c-3, non-profit status.

Admission into the Expo is $5, the proceeds of which will go to Harriet’s House.

“This event is designed by women, for women,” Thomas said. For more information, contact Thomas at (205) 515-6818, Norman at (334) 289-9310, Sharon Hopper at (334) 295-5154. Other founding members include Elizabeth Ogden and Aggie Perry.