As a member of the Louisville community for four years and having grown up in Kentucky my entire life, I have seen my fair share of news and sports coverage of the Kentucky Derby each year. One thing I always notice is the hats those women wear! There is nothing quite like a Derby hat. For today's post, I decided to look and see if there was any history associated with the hats at the Derby, and I was lucky enough to find it!
"Hats have played an important role in the history of horse racing for centuries, dating as far back as the world famous Royal Ascot in the United Kingdom, where it is decreed that 'all guests within the Royal Enclosure adhere to a strict dress code: male attendees must wear full morning dress including a top hat, whilst ladies must not show bare midriffs or shoulders and must wear hats'. It didn't take long for the royal dress code to catch on at the major racetracks in the United States. Albeit a less severe dress code than the Royal Ascot, Churchill Downs patrons taking in the Kentucky Derby in particular have been enjoying this respected tradition since 1875."So today in HLA Land, we will make our own Derby hats for this year's Derby. I, along with my friend Candace, made a hat as a demonstration for today's post. Our hat is a JMU theme (our colors are purple and gold). There are pictures below for you to see so you can get some inspiration. Also, if you do a google images search for KY Derby hats, you'll find some great examples! All of this leads me up to the announcement of HLA's first Derby Hat Parade!
Take the next week to make your very own Derby hat. Then, take a picture of yourself in your hat and email it to us at highlowaha218@gmail.com by Friday, May 1 at 5 pm. Come back next Saturday morning to see our parade of Derby hats. This is a patch-yielding event, but you must submit a photo in order to earn your patch. Cheryl put out some competitive words yesterday when she said we should all be jealous of her jeans- we need to give her some stiff competition! Get those hot glue guns toasting and then toe it up at the gates to see who gets most creative with their hat....and earn another patch for your denim!
Seeing as how today is another day in our Derby giveaways, I invite you all to place votes on how much you think it cost me to make my hat. In the comment section this weekend, the person who guesses the closest in dollars and cents, without going over, will win a Michael's gift card to help them in making their own hat. You have until Sunday at 8 p.m. CST to cast your vote.
Announcements:
Yesterday's Winner: With a guess of 47 slug bugs, our winner from yesterday is AZLori! Congrats! The record number of slug bugs seen by the O'Pry family is 44....for those who are curious!
Gift of 218: In early March, HLA community member Melanie emailed Cheryl, Claudia, Heather and I informing us that she had two tickets to the show Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which was coming to Louisville in May. Melanie offered these tickets to our community in an effort to raise money for the Gift of 218. Our team immediately decided to do a raffle in a few locations in Louisville. On Monday of this past week, all the sold ticket stubs were collected and totaled. In the end, we sold 54 raffle tickets and raised $270 for our Gift of 218 service initiative! Luckily, this is enough money to grant another gift. Some of us in this community know of a single mom of a young daughter who has worked and put herself through college for the last several years. She will be graduating two weeks from today. We would like to grant her a memory as she celebrates this significant accomplishment in her life. More details to come soon. In the meantime, if you know of any deserving families that you would like to see receive one of our Gift of 218 memories, please email us more information about this family to highlowaha218@gmail.com.
Signing off until Monday with the song of the day...
