ABOVE: This year’s WoW makeover candidates, Michelle Hall, left, and Stacy Hearn. These two ladies, who were nominated for the honor, will have their big reveal at 11:30 a.m.

BLUE EARTH– The 20th annual Southern Minnesota Women of Worth (WoW) Expo will be held at the Blue Earth Area High School from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8. Admission to the event is free.

This year’s featured speaker will be Gaye Lindfors, a Christian author and public speaker from St. Paul.

Lindfors grew up in Climax, Minnesota, and has a Master’s degree in Industrial Relations. She was the former president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Speakers Association, and the former regional director for the Christian Women in Media Association.

Lindfors has several years of leadership experience, having led a Human Resources team for over 11,000 airline employees and serving as a Special Assistant to a university president. She is also the author of several Christian advice books, including God, Girlfriends, & Chocolate; This is Livin’!: Learning to move from Messy Moments to Happy Places, and her newest book, Anticipate God’s Goodness: Letters of Encouragement to Ignite Your Spirit.

The Southern Minnesota WoW Expo helps raise funds to support survivors of domestic abuse in southern Minnesota, but it also works to remind women and domestic abuse survivors of their indisputable value.

As WoW’s mantra states, “I am a woman of worth. Southern Minnesota Women of Worth shall be for the good and betterment of families in rural southern Minnesota through continued education about abuse, neglect, and violence that takes place in rural areas, along with financial support of the program designed to help all victims of abuse.”

The WoW Expo is the organization’s annual fundraiser, intended to help raise the necessary funds to fulfill that mantra.

“We try to make the Expo an uplifting day for women,” WoW president Kristin Woodwick explained. “This event is a chance for them to learn what WoW is all about.”

This year’s Expo opens at 9 a.m., with the first 250 attendees receiving a shopping bag with a few pampering goodies.

The Expo will host around 40 vendor booths from all across southern Minnesota, representing both causes and home-based businesses. Food and drink will be available during the event, with lunch catered by the P-Pod and coffee provided by Cabin Coffee Co.

New for 2025 is the Teen Dating Violence Awareness program, which will be hosted in the BEA Performing Arts Center at 10 a.m. This program is free to attend and specifically intended for teens ages 14 to 20. Everyone who attends will be entered for a chance to win $250.This program is presented by the Committee Against Domestic Violence, and is sponsored by WoW.

The WoW’s annual makeover reveal will take place at 11:30 a.m. Two women, Michelle Hall and Stacy Hearn, have been selected for the honor after an anonymous nomination.

Their new, head-to-toe looks will feature new outfits from Dikkens in Blue Earth, and a hairstyling session courtesy of Sandy’s Salon, also in Blue Earth. These were sponsored by Edward Jones – Chase Brandt.

The festivities continue with Lindfors taking the microphone at 1 p.m. Following her presentation, the prize drawings will open at 2 p.m.

Expo attendees who support WoW by watching the presentations and the makeover reveals, as well as by shopping the selection of vendors, can be assured their donations are funding a worthwhile cause.

Woodwick hopes plenty of people will consider donating time and funds to WoW’s Expo to help Southern Minnesota WoW in its mission to combat more deaths by domestic violence.

“It could happen to anybody,” Woodwick says. “You may even know somebody who is going through it.”

For more information, please visit www.somnwomenofworth.com.