It may have been a balmy 68 degrees outside, but inside Center Lake Pavilion Wednesday there were snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and Christmas wreaths lining the room.

The first-ever Wreath of Hope Holiday Tea Wednesday afternoon drew more than 110 women to Center Lake Pavilion and raised at least $12,000 for the Cardinal Center, according to event organizers Cathy Teghtmeyer and Rebecca Kubacki.

Part of the attraction was the atmosphere - linen tablecloths, china, silverware, crystal - but mostly the women were there to help raise funds for the Cardinal Center.

Jane Green, Cardinal Center CEO, said Cardinal Center's staff of 500 serves more than 2,000 children, adults and families annually.

"Our mission is to help people with disabilities and other needs become active in the community," she said.

A few programs that fulfill that mission include group homes, which help disabled people become more independent; Head Start, which helps preschool children get ready to start school; and Sus Amigos, which supports Spanish-speaking people moving into Kosciusko County.

Green said Cardinal Center in January will start an early Head Start program for children from birth to age 3.

She also said there is "a dearth of affordable, accessible housing" in this area and that Cardinal Center is "looking at developing an affordable housing complex" and at helping economically disadvantaged people purchase their own homes.

Green thanked the crowd for participating in the fund-raising, which occurred through ticket sales for the tea and through the sponsorship and auction of 24 elaborately decorated wreaths.

Cardinal Center also provided some of the entertainment at the tea when 14 Head Start children sang four songs for the audience.

But the main entertainment, however, was a talk by cookbook author and former Warsaw resident Marcia Adams, who said it was "wonderful to be back."

Adams, who had a heart transplant "eight months and four days ago - and I'm still on the right side of the grass," said celebrating family traditions is one of the most important aspects of Christmas.

"Family traditions are like beautiful ribbons that link generation to generation," she said. "It's important to keep those ribbons tied from one generation to the next."

Using humor and anecdotes from personal experience with Christmas crafts (she is "craft-impaired," she said) and with getting family members to help with Christmas preparations ("Sometimes threatening people is the right thing to do"), she gave advice on decorating and cooking for the holidays ("You do what you have to do, and that's aspirin in December").

Adams also talked about her new mission - to educate women on the dangers of heart disease, which, she said, is the No. 1 killer of women.

"Half of you in this room already have heart disease," she said. "Half of those will die of it - women's symptoms are different than men's."

Women should take a lesson from people who campaigned for more research on breast cancer and AIDS, she said, and apply their methods to heart disease in women.

To that end she organized a grass-roots group called HeartStrings to lobby for more education, research and awareness of women and heart disease.

"We're going to rattle our cages and we're going to rattle other people's cages - in a very ladylike way," she said. "We've gotta get cracking because we're dying - we're in an epidemic." [[In-content Ad]]