SPORTS>>Sport marks 75 years

Roller derby has not just infiltrated the major cities and suburbs of the United States, it has become a worldwide happening.

Since a grassroots movement began in 2001, mom-and-pop teams and small leagues have sprung up in 20 countries, including Europe and North America, where roller derby was once mocked as a female version of professional wrestling.

Populated by ladies in macabre and sometimes provocative attire, roller derby is easily one of the most physical of women’s sports and has been enjoying a revival that began in Austin, Texas.

Roller derby went nationwide in 2006 when the A&E Network broadcast the reality series “Rollergirls.”

The series was only 13 episodes, but it was enough to feed roller derby’s growth into Oklahoma and now Arkansas.

Roller derby has its roots and draws its name from endurance skating races held in the early 1900s, but it wasn’t until Chicago theater owner Leo Seltzer organized the Transcontinental Roller Derby in 1935 that the sport began to take form as a seasonal-type activity.

Seltzer borrowed from various sports including bicycle racing, where he got the idea for the wooden oval to hold the races that later became known as bouts.

Roller derby’s endurance aspect wasn’t enough to hold fans’ interest and the TRD began placing emphasis on physical contact.

That led to a shift toward the modern format of 30-minute periods and two-minute jam sequences.

Roller derby has seen many incarnations and took on a show-biz tone in the early 1960s when the National Skating Derby challenged Seltzer’s version of the sport from the West Coast.

Former skater Herb Roberts created the NSD in southern California in 1961 and later that same year sold the league to Bill Griffiths and Jerry Hill.

The duo took the league’s original team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, and made them regional celebrities with a series of televised bouts against “heel” opponents and plotted story lines.

The NSD also featured male competitors in a coed format.

Seltzer’s son Jerry took over the TRD operation in the 1950s and moved it to southern California.

Jerry Seltzer sold out to Griffiths in 1973 and Griffiths combined the TRD and NSD, using a series of different names and subplots over the next two years.

When Griffiths’ operation finally ran out of steam in 1975, the do-it-yourself movement began to blossom as skaters from the defunct league came up with a stripped-down, less gimmicky version that was re-branded Roller Games.

This helped generate new interest over time, and Griffiths, still determined to profit from a league to which he owned the rights, created the Roller Games television program in 1989.

Still featuring the Los Angeles Thunderbirds as its good-girl “baby faces,” Roller Games took the fictional story lines and exaggerated on-track challenges to a new level.

The program utilized a tricky, figure- eight track and revolved around contrived “controversies” over player eligibility issues, among other things.

Bouts featuring the T-Birds are still held in southern California, but the stigma attached to the brand and its flamboyant past has kept Roller Games from taking a significant role in roller derby’s new generation.

In late 2001, when a group of skaters broke away from a local promoter to form Bad Girl Good Woman productions in Austin, Texas, it marked the beginning of roller derby’s modern era.

Four clubs were formed and regular league play began less than a year later.

From that small circuit evolved two different forms — flat and banked track. Flat track roller derby quickly became the most common version because of its less costly setup, and The Women’s Flat Track Derby Association emerged as the sport’s dominant sanctioning body.

Most of the theatrics and shtick associated with the previous generations of roller derby have been discarded by the new wave and the attire has also been overhauled.

The classic outfits looked like a hybrid between softball and hockey uniforms but modern outfits are campier. The uniforms range in style from sparkly and florescent to downright gothic.

Some modern jammers are heavily into tattoos and piercings as well as using alternative makeup and hairstyles.

A team consists of five players starting with the pivot, who is designated by a horizontal stripe on her helmet and is responsible for maintaining a consistent pace at which she leads the group of blockers.

The pivot is also the last person an opposing jammer has to pass to get into scoring position.

Points are scored each time a jammer passes a blocker while skating around back to the pack.

The blockers follow the pivots and are responsible for most of the strategy. Depending on the strength or weakness of a team’s jammer, blockers can opt for more offensive-minded schemes in which they attempt to clear lanes for scoring opportunities.

They can also assume defensive sets that usually take the form of two girls lining up arm in arm in the middle of the track.

Jammers are designated by a star on the sides of their helmets and begin 30 feet behind the pivot line and 20 feet behind the pack.

They are required to skate through the pack one time to be in scoring position and the first jammer to make her way through the pack becomes lead jammer.

The lead jammer can end a jam at any time by repeatedly touching her hips.

Jammers can pass their stars to the pivot players during a jam and assume a blocking role for the remainder. This negates any lead jammer designation, essentially starting the cycle over.

If a jammer

Blockers are not allowed to grab a jammer’s uniform or limbs and throwing elbows or back blocks are also prohibited.

Most blocks are made by quick shoves with the hand, shoulder or a swinging hip. Blocking by ducking down and rising up as a jammer approaches is discouraged for safety reasons, though it is technically not illegal.

SPORTS>>WOMEN FIND NEW OUTLET IN OLD-SCHOOL SPORT ROLLERDERBY True GRITS helps skaters get on roll

By JASON KING

Leader sportswriter

They are the new voice of girl power, one part titillating and one part terrifying.

They are thrill seekers with silly nicknames and fishnet stockings.

And at the end of the day, they are wives, mothers, girlfriends and professionals just like everyone else.

They are roller derby girls.

Girls Rollin’ in the South, or GRITS, is the Cabot/Jacksonville version of a sport with roots in the pre-World War II era. Skateworld on Loop Road was the site of the league’s maiden event Saturday, a green-black intramural scrimmage ominously named “Holiday Havoc.”

The rapidly increasing interest in roller derby was evident by the large crowd. People squeezed into the sections of folding chairs near the turns in the makeshift track — an area labeled “suicide seating” — to the barrier outside the rink area.

From their vantage point they watched veteran team captain Bailey Fitzpatrick, who skates as “Daisy Fever” lead her black squad to a victory fueled by a solid performance from jammer “Jaguar Jersey.”

Jersey, whose given name is Desirae Boldin, cleared the pack several times to score the most points by any jammer and she led in most of the scrimmages in which she participated.

Coach Nick Fitzpatrick, Bailey’s husband who goes by “Coach Fever,” worked primarily with the less aggressive green squad while his wife gave most of the instructions to the black team during timeouts.

Though low budget, the operation was professionally presented, with an announcer and a scoreboard projected against the south wall. Members of the officiating crew, led by “Senorita Slammer” — otherwise known as Lisa Dixon — kept a keen eye on the action and occasionally served as cheerleaders as they stirred up the crowd between jams.

The difference in skill levels was evident early, and tumbles were frequent in the first few jams. But the action picked up in later scrimmages as onlookers cheered for their favorite player.

There were no significant injuries outside the usual scrapes, rashes and cherries sustained in falls to the wood surface, and some skaters were more affected than others.

Roller derby’s growth is reflected in the local area.

The Roller Derby Worldwide Website Registry of amateur teams list three other leagues in Arkansas, along with GRITS, and 484 nationwide. That’s not to mention the leagues and teams that seem to form almost weekly.

Roller derby, once presented as a scripted form of pro wrestling on skates, lurked on the outskirts of the sports world and popular culture for over half a century but has found a glittery new voice in its girls-doing-it-for-themselves mentality. It is a sport by females, for females, but the guys can watch if they want to.

The spectator appeal is easy enough to grasp.

With 10 girls all on eight small wheels heading into sharp turns at high speed less than a foot apart, contact is inevitable. A crafty jammer can also be thrilling to watch as she ducks and maneuvers through blockers intent on knocking her down.

The do-it-yourself ideology was evident as Nick Fitzpatrick was taping down the nylon cord that served as the track’s out-of-bounds lines minutes before the scrimmage.

Nick and Bailey Fitzpatrick, “Coach Fever” and “Daisy Fever,” have been at the forefront of roller derby movement in central Arkansas since 2005. Bailey began skating for a league in Little Rock while Nick was recruited as an official.

The league dissolved less than a year later, leading the Fitzpatricks to bring the movement up the interstate. Practices are at Cabot while competition is in Jacksonville.

“One day, somebody said ‘Hey, let’s do this in Cabot,’ so here we are,” Nick Fitzpatrick said. “Our neighboring Jacksonville rink is bigger, so we have to do our sanctioned and official bouts here.”

With his black suit and neon green tie, Fitzpatrick certainly looked the part of a coach. A heating and air technician by day, he takes his coaching seriously.

“What I like to do is get a good idea of what the other team is going to look like,” Fitzpatrick said. “Once I’ve got that figured out, I know exactly how I’m going to run my jammers. Then I will set up different formations for my blockers depending on the players on the floor.”

The Fitzpatricks’ chosen Fever moniker is tame compared to some of the other handles. “Shawanna Tattletale” and “Harley Hardtail” are among the printable nicknames, as off-color slang and references to body parts seem quite popular.

Brynn Comeau went with “Gi Gi Genocide” for her derby alter ego. Comeau was recruited by a friend at work, and has been in the sport for a couple of months.

She likes being a part of something not everyone gets, and said she loves to see people’s reactions when she tells them she is into roller derby.

“Basically, you want something that will kind of intimidate the other players, but something that’s fun and cute,” Comeau said of her Gi Gi Genocide alter ego. “So that’s where I got mine.”

Officially injured

Christy Hendricks wore a wistful look as jammers Sassie Longlegz and Jaguar Jersey blazed by her scorer’s table in the southwest corner of the Skateworld rink. Hendricks is GRITS president and was one of three girls who began weekly practices one year ago.

But in an early March practice, Hendricks took a fall and broke her leg in 11 different places, requiring plates to be inserted on her tibia and fibula.

While the others practice and fine tune their skills as the January start of regular play approaches, Hendricks handles vital but less glamorous duties like the paperwork required for the league’s non profit status.

Hendricks, a newspaper art editor and single mother, has taken on the business and legal end of the operation and hopes GRITS will grow to the point of having multiple teams. It remains to be seen if her alter ego, “Wicked Pagemaster,” will make it back onto the rink.

“I was okay until they got me up, and my toe touched the floor,” Hendricks said of her injury. “That’s when I really felt the pain. It hurt. That’s probably one of the worst pains I’ve ever felt in my life.”

Hendricks said she does not mind serving as an example when it comes to safety, especially for the sake of younger skaters. Her brief hesitation while practicing baseball slides that day in March caused the fall that left Hendricks immobile for three weeks and unable to go to her newspaper office for two months.

“It’s hard to watch them, especially in that atmosphere,” Hendricks said.

“And to know because I hesitated just a little bit, that I can’t be out there. I don’t watch a lot of sports, but I’ve always liked to participate in sports. Being involved, but not being able to actually play, that’s really hard to watch.”

Injured skaters are still able to contribute. Dixon, or “Senorita Smasher,” is also recovering from an injury and stays involved as an official. She has lived in the Cabot area for almost 20 years and took her daughter to the skating regularly when she caught wind of roller derby.

“Honestly, it’s a great workout,” Dixon said. “I love these ladies — they are all professionals, from diverse backgrounds. They are very colorful women. We get out there and let our mom coats fly and just have fun at being women who are strong and empowered.”

Tough alter ego

Toni Wofford does not get pushed around at work anymore.

“D.D. Knockersdown” won’t allow it.

Knockersdown is Wofford’s roller derby name and a new part of her self-image. By her account Wofford was a placid doormat in her job at a local center for abused women, but through roller derby she has found her voice, her inner D.D.

Wofford became involved when co-worker Rebecca “Sassie Longlegz” Silver encouraged her to give roller derby a try.

“I was too nice, and I got walked over,” Wofford said. “And she said ‘I think you should come out here and do this.’ And ever since the first practice, I haven’t looked back. I stick up for myself more — I feel more confident. I can stick up to people who have tried to walk all over me.

“If I have an opinion, I’m not afraid to voice it now. I take a little bit of D.D. Knockerzdown out of here and apply it to the rest of my life.”

It took some time for Wofford to adjust to the old-school quad skates after growing up with more modern roller blades, but she can sense improvement with every practice.

Silver, a former basketball and track star at McPherson College in Kansas, wasn’t looking for empowerment, just a good calorie burner.

“I’ve been looking for someone to hold me accountable for working out,” Silver said. “I needed a weight loss program. This is perfect. It’s all girls, twice a week. I hate running, but I love skating.”

Silver, taller than your typical jammer at 5-10 — 6-3 with skates — said there is sometimes a moment of panic before skating up to the pack. But the rush is similar to what she felt on the basketball court.

“I didn’t know what roller derby was for the first three practices — no idea,” Silver said. “I’m still learning the rules. I’m relatively new, but not for this team, I guess.”

Women seem to gravitate to roller derby primarily because it is not age or lifestyle specific. Women from 18 to their mid 40s participate, and their day jobs range from doctors and computer engineers to teachers and housewives.

The influx of such women from all walks of life has helped remove the stigma of roller derby’s checkered past, Nick Fitzpatrick said.

“Maybe in the minds of older people who remember those times,” Fitzpatrick said.

“It’s really half underground and half mainstream now — the wrestling and the fake part has gone away from it almost completely. You would be hard pressed to find any league that still has a gimmick as far as fake fights and fake moves.

“These five girls, they hit the floor against the opposing five, and it’s all or nothing.”

EDITORIAL >>Regulators do their job

We-Never-Thought-We’d-Live-to-See-the-Day Dept.: An Arkansas regulatory agency leads the nation in oversight of a polluting industry.

No one will call it a crackdown, as some are calling a few of the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s recent rulings on horizontal gas drilling, but the state Oil and Gas Commission deserves people’s gratitude for adopting a rule this week requiring operators in the Fayetteville shale gas play to reveal all the chemicals they use in the fracturing process.

The agency did not stop the exploration companies from using benzene, methane or other poisonous chemicals when they blast water and sand through shale to release natural gas, but it said they had to tell people exactly what went into each production well and each storage well they drill and in what proportions. Even minuscule amounts must be reported because even trace amounts of some chemicals are extremely dangerous.

Wyoming and Arkansas are the first states to require the disclosure, but much of the country is expected to follow suit. Hydraulic fracturing, which opened north-central Arkansas to gas production on a huge scale six years ago, has set off a drilling boom from New York to Louisiana in the south and Montana in the northwest. It is an economic bonanza for many in the shale regions, bringing income for the owners of mineral rights and new jobs, but also new alarms about environmental and road destruction and water contamination. Our neighbors to the north have not escaped it.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has investigated a few complaints about contamination of water wells around shale wells but—surprise!—has not been able to link fracturing to nearby poisoned wells. In Texas, where the shale development began around Fort Worth, the Arkansas agency’s counterpart, the Texas Railroad Commission, has found no nexus either.

But to the Railroad Commission’s and the industry’s consternation, the Environmental Protection Agency this week found that there were dangerous levels of benzene and other chemicals in two water wells serving homes near well sites and it connected the poisons to the drilling. The EPA said the contamination violated the Safe Drinking Water Act and ordered an immediate remedy. The Texas regulatory officials, as everyone expected, denounced the EPA’s meddling.

The disclosures of what exactly goes into each exploration will give landowners, neighbors, the Department of Environmental Quality and, yes, the EPA the information they need to get to the truth. The industry says there is no connection between the drilling and water contamination because the wells typically go far deeper than the aquifer that provides drinking water. They may be right but we need to know. In Texas, the EPA found the exact compounds from the gas wells in the drinking water.

The Oil and Gas Commission moved swiftly on another, more speculative front. It halted new permits for disposal wells that store fracturing fluids for a month while it tries to determine if there is any basis for widespread concerns that the wells may be causing the eruption of minor earthquakes in the drilling zone this year. That sounds dubious to us, but geoscience is far beyond our ken.

But it is heartening that there is a state regulatory agency that seems to have the public interest at heart and not merely the agency’s constituent industries.

TOP STORY > >Drugs, weapons focus of Friday testimonies

By stephen steed

Special to The Leader

Prosecutors on Friday continued their portrayal of George Wylie Thompson, 65, of Cabot, as a three-time felon committed to illegal activities, including possession of firearms, running illegal gambling operations, and arranging a sham marriage.

They contend that Sam Baggett, 56, a North Little Rock alderman, helped him acquire guns and ammunition even though Thompson, as a convicted felon, could not legally possess firearms.

Witnesses Friday – the third day of testimony in the trial of Baggett and Thompson in U.S. District Court in Little Rock – included a Little Rock man who testified that he used Thompson as a bookie, an FBI agent who was part of a surveillance team investigating Thompson; a Hot Springs man who said he sold a rifle and scope to Thompson, and a Texas man previously convicted of trafficking more than a ton of marijuana.

Thompson faces eight charges, including being a felon in possession of guns and ammunition, possession of unregistered silencers, conducting an illegal gambling operation and marriage fraud. Baggett, who has remained on the North Little Rock City Council since his indictment, faces six charges, including selling guns to a felon and making false statements to federal agents.

Don Pucek of Little Rock testified Friday he placed bets with Thompson on football games and estimated that at one time he owed Thompson about $7,000 in gambling debts. He made weekly payments on his debt and also gave Thompson a shotgun to put toward it. Clay Ellison of Hot Springs said Thompson responded to his newspaper ad through which he was trying to sell a rifle. Thompson bought the rifle for $450, Ellison testified.

Noland McCoy, an FBI photographer, testified that he shot surveillance photographs of Thompson completing those deals.

Forrest Cole of Garland, Texas, said he gambled, usually on poker, at games attended by Thompson on his property in northern Pulaski County. Cole was convicted in 2002 of trying to sell more than a ton of marijuana. On cross-examination Friday, Cole conceded that his testimony for the prosecution could result in his being freed from supervised release, a sort of probation.

The investigation of Thomp-son began as a probe into his alleged bookmaking operations but unexpectedly expanded into firearms violations, according to prosecutors.

On Dec. 4, 2008, the first day of a court-authorized wiretap on Thompson’s telephone, agents recorded a telephone call in which Baggett asked Thompson what kinds of ammunition he wanted. The next day, Thompson called Baggett to price the ammo. Tapes of those calls and others were played for the jury during the week.

On May 12, 2009, authorities raided Thompson’s home in Cabot and a piece of property on the Pulaski-Lonoke County line, confiscating 147 guns, almost 88,000 rounds of ammunition and five silencers. About three weeks later, agents visited Baggett at his Levy barbershop, which also doubled as his gun store, questioned him for a time, then returned the same day with a warrant. The government contends Baggett lied to federal agents about his dealings with Thompson during those visits.

Those guns and ammo were on display Wednesday and Thursday for the jury of seven women and five men.

Defense lawyers for Baggett and Thompson said the government’s case rests on the credibility of its witnesses. Five colleagues of Thompson have pleaded guilty to gambling charges and await sentencing. Another defendant caught in the same web, former North Little Rock alderman Cary Gaines, pleaded guilty last Monday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, by working with Thompson in an attempt to rig contractor’s bids on city contracts. Gaines resigned as alderman shortly before his indictment.

John Wesley Hall, Baggett’s attorney, said in his opening statement that those six will be testifying for the government in hopes of getting leniency.

Another Thompson colleague, Tony Milner, served as a third party to buy guns and ammunition from Baggett on behalf of Thompson, prosecutors say. Milner also has pleaded guilty to gambling and firearms charges and is awaiting sentencing. Prosecutors say Milner first bought a gun from Baggett for Thompson in 2007. That gun was among the 147 seized more than two years later.

Baggett did not know Thompson was a felon until the May 2009 raid, Hall said. Thompson had two drug convictions at the time – one from federal court in 1989, one in state court in 2003. Last October, he was convicted of another drug charge in federal court. Also, Milner purchased the gun from Baggett, filled out the required paperwork and said the gun was for himself, Hall said.

Jason Files, one of Thompson’s attorneys, said the ammo found on Thompson’s property was an investment, not for shooting or for resale. Files conceded that Thompson is a bookmaker but that his gambling operation didn’t violate federal law and didn’t merit federal charges.

Thompson also is charged with marriage fraud – by accepting $10,000 to “arrange” a marriage between an undocumented alien and Milner, prosecutors claim. Files said in his opening statement Tuesday that Milner is still married to the woman. “He (Milner) didn’t think it was a fraudulent marriage until he started talking to the government,” Files said, noting that only Thompson has been charged with marriage fraud.

The trial resumes Monday. Prosecutors said Friday they hope to wrap up their case by the end of Wednesday. Baggett’s lawyer said their defense will, in large part, be determined by whether Thompson testifies – a decision not yet reached, or at least not announced, by his legal team.

TOP STORY > >Hopson: Combine schools, cut costs

By john hofheimer

Leader senior staff writer

Pulaski County Special School District Superintendent Charles Hopson has signaled that he will ask the school board Tuesday to consider combining some schools and shutting others down as part of the cost-cutting strategy board president Bill Vasquez has asked him to prepare.

Vasquez called upon Hopson to identify cost-saving measures, saying he was particularly concerned that the district be prepared for the sudden or eventual end of about $17 million a year in state aid for desegregation.

In his Dec. 6 “Superinten-dent’s Corner,” posted on the district’s website, Hopson forewarned district patrons, “Facility repurposing is the huge elephant that has been walking around this district for a long time.”

Facilities “is the single area that has probably cost the district hundreds of millions in the past 15 years. We will tackle it. This is a risk I am willing to take rather than succumb to the inertia of fear,” he wrote in his column.

Hopson and his staff will introduce and discuss the Vision 2020 Facilities Plan with board members at the Monday workshop.

It will be a busy week for Hopson, staff and board members, with a four-hour board workshop slated for 5 p.m. Monday, a board work session followed by the regular board meeting Tuesday and a Wednesday morning appearance before the state Joint Legislative Audit Committee, which is still scrutinizing the district, looking for remedies to past financial problems.

The Vision 2020 Facilities Plan, which apparently calls for closing one or more schools and combining them with others, as well as fixing some schools and building new, long-overdue schools, could be among items discussed at the 4:30 p.m. board work session and its approval is slated for discussion at the regular December meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“What I will be proposing to the board may not be popular with some, but the long-term stability of the district and the safety and well-being of our students and staff will be the primary focus of a proposal from our executive director of operations aimed at trimming several million through facility repurposing,” he wrote.

“We have to build new schools, and they have to be equitable,” Hopson has said.

Retired Col. Derek Scott has been surveying the state of the district’s buildings to determine which need fixing, which need remodeling, which need replacing and apparently, which need to be combined with another and closed.

Communications director Deb Roush said the authority to close, combine and build schools resides with the board, and that communities would need to have input into the decisions.

Hopson and chief financial officer Anita Farver will brief the board about the district’s current financial situation at the Monday workshop.

The board is expected to vote on new contracts with the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers and the Pulaski Association of Support Staff at the regular meeting Tuesday, and it needs to confirm that there is sufficient money for proposed pay increases.

Board member Mildred Tatum asked for the workshop, but both she and board member Sandra Sawyer will be out of town for the workshop, called by Vasquez.

Also on the agenda for the board workshop is a report by attorney Sam Jones on desegregation and legal issues and staffing updates by deputy Superintendent Paul Brewer.

At the regular board meeting, in addition to voting on new contracts for teachers and support staff and the Vision 2020 Facilities Plan, the board will consider a request for installation of artificial turf at Jacksonville, Mills and Sylvan Hills high schools, and revision of the Pacific Educational Group contract—that’s the group that was hired to teach administrators and teachers how to deal effectively with issues of race and poverty.

TOP STORY > >Business owner helping cousin

By christy hendricks

Leader staff writer

Matthew Shillingsburg, 6, of Palm Bay, Fla., was diagnosed with B cell leukemia on Thanksgiving this year. Schillingsburg, a cousin of Brandy Huffman, owner of the Littlest Cake Shop, will spend the next three-and-a-half years undergoing daily chemotherapy treatments.

“It’s already in 40 percent of his body,” Huffman said of her young cousin. “He is their miracle child. She wasn’t supposed to be able to have kids.”

Shillingsburg and his family will have to travel more than 80 miles from their Palm Bay home to Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando monthly. To help the family with travel and medical costs, The Littlest Cake Shop will hold a silent auction fundraiser set to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday and run through 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17.

The Schillingsburgs have applied for a research study where experimental treatments will be used, according to Huffman. “You have to be accepted for the program,” she said. “It’s based out of Dallas.”

“I’ve been amazed by how much people are willing to help a child who doesn’t live here,” said Huffman.

“We know it’s close to Christmas and it’s hard for everyone. We’re trying to make it where people can come in and bid at a lower cost and still be able to give the items as gifts.”

Many items have already been donated for the fundraiser, including items received on Thursday from The Cheesecake Factory, Body Designz, Buck’s Mobile Service, and a company wishing to remain anonymous donated auto parts.

Other items donated in-clude a petty skirt and bow from Pink and Blue Children’s Consignment, two $10 gift cards from 3 Flamingos, deluxe backyard party pack with two inflatables from Space Walk of Cabot, a paint-your-own pottery piece from Sassy Classy, a one month tanning package from Hair Cuts & More, hand and foot treatment and nutrition consultation from Shalee’s Day Spa, two mini-photo sessions from Melissa Conn, Caesar Stone cutting board from Linco Countertops, a Coach purse and a blanket from Charlotte Cook, Scentsy Warmer “Zensy” and scent cubes from www.scentsy.com/maryeverts, $30 gift card from Nutrition World, one lane for six people and shoe rentals from AllFam Bowling, two orders of 50 wings from Hooters, a pink rubber watch from the Mobile Purse Lady, a beaded necklace from Deb’s Designs, glass candy earrings from Jenny’s Gems, glass Christmas-tree-beaded bracelet from Jenny’s Gems, a Zebra beaded pin and beaded snowman earrings and beaded butterfly earrings from Katy Welch, Fruits of the Spirit Swarovski pearls from Gale Cockrell, a silver and stone pendant from Dana Morrison and a gold and stone pendant from David Colclasure.

For more information, or to donate or bid on an item, stop by the Littlest Cake Shop, located at 1102 S. Pine St. Suite 9 in Cabot, call 501-843-8080 or visit www.littlestcakeshop.com.