HOWLAND — With Norman Rockwell’s idealized paintings of Boy Scouts in the background, 100 supporters gathered inside the Medici Museum of Art in Howland to support Sight For All United in its first Mad Hatter Tea Party social event.

The event was organized around a theme taken from Lewis Carrol’s famous children’s book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” In the story, Alice comes across a tea party thrown in the woods by “the mad hatter,” an insane, supernatural and amusing little man with an outlandishly large hat.

Most of the supporters were dressed in appropriate colorful outfits sporting festive headwear, but none seemed outlandish. Beth Colon — an orthoptist in the office of SFAU’s president, Dr. Sergul Erzurum–was inspired by the tea party thrown at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York.

“I love to entertain,” Colon said. “And so, we were talking one day, and I said, you know, we ought to have a spring tea party (like the one in the Botanical Garden),” Colon explained. “And we thought, there is really nothing for women at this part of the year. We just thought this would be a fun spring event and it looks like people are really enjoying it. They got in the mood and started wearing hats,” Colon said. “We want to tell people about the mission of Sight For All United and have a little fun doing that.”

Most of the supporters were women who dressed for the occasion. They milled about, sipping wine and mimosas, had their portraits taken to commemorate the event and shopped at the many vendor tables. Fiddle music was provided by Mary Lewis of Youngstown. And, of course, the famous paintings of young men camping and scouting adorned the walls.

SFAU was founded in 2016 to bring eye care to people who cannot afford it. The organization offers a variety of services to both children and adults.

“Thousands of students are identified with vision problems each year, but two-thirds of them will never see an eye doctor or get a pair of glasses due to a multitude of reasons,” its website reads. So far, SFAU has provided help to more than 4,000 people, according to the website.

These services include an in-school mobile vision van that travels to area grade schools to provide eye exams and glasses to at-need children. SFAU also provides exams, medications and surgeries to adults who cannot afford them, and the organization can assist in paying for glasses. Local doctors volunteer their time and expertise to SFAU, and community volunteers help. SFAU’s office is located in Struthers, and applications and information can be found at the website https://www.sightforallunited.org/.

Other events hosted by SFAU include the Eyeball of the Valley, a banquet in honor of local doctors who volunteer their time, and Golf Fore Sight — a wordplay on the idea of “golfing for sight”– a golf outing during the summer.

The Mad Hatter Tea Party was the first of its kind for SFAU. This was not a fundraising event, organizers emphasized, but an attempt to bring attention to the organization and what it offers to residents in the Mahoning Valley.

“That’s our mission for today,” Executive Director Leah Sakacs said. “Just to make sure that people are aware of who we are and what we do for the community and spread our awareness as much as we can, whether they are in need of service or know someone who is in need of services.”

Sakacs also hoped the tea party would help generate volunteers from the community. About 30 volunteers from local high schools, Youngstown State University, medical students from Northeast Ohio Medical University and volunteers from Eye Care Associates helped out.

One of them was Aidan Fay, a sophomore at Youngstown State University who was fulfilling his volunteer project for the YSU Honors College.

“We have been helping out for the past few weeks and this is our final project,” he said.

Fay hopes to go into physical therapy and found that the experience was a good way to gain insight into the medical field. “It’s great. I’m glad I took part in it,” he said.

Kaitlyn Zehnder of New Castle, 18, a senior at East Liverpool High School, accompanied her grandfather, Sever Hall, an assistant in Erzurum’s clinic, to the event. Zehnder volunteered to be an eyewear model.

“It’s an enjoyable experience and it’s definitely something I will remember,” Zehnder said. “I am proud to be a part of all this. And I definitely got to go to Macy’s and get a whole outfit for all this.”

Mary Stritzel, a third-generation cattle farmer, drove two hours from Columbia Station to attend the tea party.

“I saw this event in the Farm and Dairy magazine and I thought, oh wow, this is going to be a dress-up event,” Stritzel said, “and I’m just thrilled to be here because the ladies, the outfits, the dresses, the hats — it’s all so glamorous. And the museum is so wonderful.”

The event was supported by Eye Care Associates, The Grand Resort and Medici Museum of Art. A catered luncheon was provided by Chrystal’s Catering.

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