PORT TOWNSEND — Raffle tickets are available now for the 10th annual Girls’ Night Out next week that will help raise money for cancer while offering specials and late hours at shops.
Thirty-three Port Townsend merchants are participating so far, with most selling the $5 raffle tickets.
Proceeds from the raffle tickets and gift bags now being assembled for the event will go to the Jefferson County Public Health’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Program and the Port Townsend Main Street Program, which are sponsoring it along with participating businesses.
“It’s a great way for people to see what’s in the shops and allows them to reconnect with the merchants,” said Main Street Executive Director Mari Mullen, who has organized the event since its inception.
“Over time, breast and cervical cancer have become subjects that people now talk about, and how important it is to get cancer screenings,” she said.
“Events like Girls’ Night Out have brought this important topic into the conversation.”
This year’s theme is “In the Pink,” with participants encouraged to wear the color that has symbolized the anti-cancer efforts.
During the event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., businesses will offer special events, in-store promotions and refreshments for shoppers.
The raffle prize is a $600 value, according to Port Townsend Main Street, which will include a night in the Big Red Barn for two, a massage and facial from La Bella Day Spa, a gift certificate for two at Khu Larb Thai, a spa robe from Manresa Castle and a portrait sitting with 8-inch-by-10-inch image by Deja View Photography.
Volunteers are now assembling 500 gift bags — featuring socks, chocolate, postcards and other goodies — that will be sold for $10 each, beginning Tuesday.
“Every gift bag is different but each one has a lot of fun stuff,” Mullen said.
With the changing nature of local retail and fashion trends, each event differs from year to year.
“What is really fun this year is we have several uptown merchants involved,” Mullen said. “So people shop up there and have a great time and then come on downtown.”
The poster for the event includes a modeling shot of Mullen’s mother, Mary F. Mullen, taken in 1942.
“She was very stylish,” Mullen said of her mother, who died in 2002. “And we loved to go shopping together.”
For more information, go to ptmainstreet.org or call 360-385-7911.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
