The annual Garden Party offers attendees the opportunity to spend the day browsing local vendors, dining on local food and learning more about the work of the two local, sponsoring agencies: CAPS (Child, Adolescent, and Parent Support) and MCBD (Marshalltown Central Business District). The event will run 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 6 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

“This is our second year partnering with the MCBD,” said CAPS Community Relations Director Anna Hargrave. “It had been more of a vendor show, held at Elmwood Country Club, in the past.”

She noted it was Brittany Tow, owner of Brit Marie’s Country Boutique, who came up with the idea to collaborate.

“I always like to give back. I think it’s really important to collaborate with other businesses within the community. I’ve done fashion shows before and I wanted to do one last spring, so I reached out to CAPS and then it grew from there to include all the other businesses downtown,” said Tow, who is also the retail promotions chair for MCBD.

Doors will open at 9:30 a.m. with brunch, catered by Smokin’ G’s, and the chance to view and bid on a wide variety of silent auction items donated by area businesses. New this year is the inclusion of about a dozen vendors that will be selling home décor, jewelry, food items and more.

At 10:30 a.m., there will be two short programs presented by CAPS and the MCBD, plus announcing the silent auction winners. Kyle Martin will serve as emcee with CzechMix Entertainment as the DJ.

Then at 11 a.m., there will be a fashion show featuring clothing items sold at downtown businesses.

Tickets are $40 each and available to purchase at Brit Marie’s (13 W. Main St.), The MCBD office (34 W. Main St.), and at CAPS (306 S. 17th Ave.). In addition, you can email anna@capsonline.us, nikki@capsonline.us or britmaries2018@gmail.com to make arrangements to pay by Venmo. Tickets will not be sold at the door and must be secured by April 1.

Funds raised will be split between The Nest, which is located at CAPS’s office and the MCBD for downtown beautification.

The Nest is a store that offers eligible Marshall County families access to necessary baby items and cleaning products by redeeming points. It serves families prenatal through a child’s second birthday who are at or below 185% of poverty. People earn points by participating in health care and educational services.

“We seem to go through a ton of diapers,” Hargrave said. “We run out of the bigger sizes the most: 4, 5 and 6. If people are willing to donate diapers or monetary donations, it helps us make sure the store is filled for the amount of families that come and use it.”

Volunteers are always needed.

CAPS serves more than 8,000 children and their families in Marshall, Hardin and Tama Counties. Its programs include: Building Healthy Families, Strong Foundations, Sexual Abuse Prevention, Adolescent Sexual Health, Crisis Intervention, Refugee Community Services Program and MIECHV (maternal, infant and early childhood home visitation).

“We have restricted funds, so fundraisers really just help us with other things that we can’t use grant money for,” Hargrave said.

Tow said the MCBD has paid to have arches installed in the downtown, as well as painting sidewalks and flower baskets.

“We put our money towards projects downtown where we feel would help with community engagement and bringing people downtown,” she said.