Nomadic Throws a Pajama Party

Nomadic Display, maker of portable and modular exhibits, collected more than 140 pairs of pajamas during the recent Exhibitor in Las Vegas. The pajamas were then donated by a charity known as Helen's Pajama Party to The Shade Tree, a Las Vegas shelter serving more than 3,355 homeless and abused women and children each year.

Helen's Pajama Party was founded by Kelly Sargent, president of Des Moines, Iowa-based Brainstorm Marketing, a Nomadic Display distributor. Nomadic Display Senior Vice President Gwen Parsons said she learned of the organization from Sargent, a fan of flannel pajamas who decided that she didn't need to buy more pajamas for herself when there were so many battered women in shelters who could use them. The result was a nonprofit organization Sargent named after her late mother that eventually collected 3,000 pairs of pajamas for women in shelters across Iowa.

Parsons said she decided to bring the project to Las Vegas, a city closely identified with the exhibit and event industry, so she incorporated a campaign in support of Helen's Pajama Party into Nomadic's Exhibitor activities. Parsons, a member of the informal Women in Exhibitions social organization, which sometimes meets at industry events, called other members, including Carol Fojtik, senior vice president of Exhibitor show manager Hall-Erickson. They contacted about 400 women attending the show to ask them to bring a pair of new pajamas with them to Las Vegas.

Attendees donated pajamas worth an estimated $2,800 to $3,500 at the show, Parsons said. She hopes to do the same thing, if not expand the effort, during TS ² July 29-30 in Philadelphia and then again next year at Exhibitor. Nomadic, which has a rental depot in Las Vegas, transported the pajamas from the show to the shelter.

At a March 10 reception, Sargent told her organization's story and that of Kelly O'Shaughnessy from The Shade Tree, which provides shelter, food and clothing for battered women and their children.