On Feb. 6­8, the guild held its 34th annual antique show, with the theme "St. Christopher Salutes America," that featured 23 antique dealers, a family restaurant, a bar, boutiques and a silent auction.

"It's not just an event for us," says antique-show chairwoman Toni Saldivar. "It brings the outside community in. It's very popular, and antique dealers fight to get into the show."

While it's the Ladies' Guild main fundraiser for the school and parish, the heart of the occasion is "being part of a great community, getting parents involved in Catholic education and having a ball," Saldivar says.

The event brings the entire parish together, with schoolchildren contributing artwork, eighth-grade students waiting on tables, parents cooking and decorating, and guild members making homemade crafts, the Over 50s club baking and mailing, and the men's Holy Name Society barbecuing, she says.

The cooking begins three days before, but the decorating is done only the day before, because the classrooms are needed for school.

Using this year's patriotic theme, volunteers converted a classroom into an old-fashioned candy store with baked goods, candy and fresh cookies at The Sweet Shoppe, while potted flowers were sold in The Victory Garden Shop. Handmade crafts and small toys were personalized at the Mall of America, and adults visited the Traveler's Lone Star Saloon for a drink.

Saldivar says the new volunteers "are always blown away at the transformation" of the school gym into an antique gallery and of the small hall into a full-scale restaurant with murals and lights.

Antique-show chairwoman Jane Davilla says the event has evolved in the 20 years since she joined the Ladies' Guild.

"The flower shop used to be in a corner, and now it fills a whole room," she says.

Davilla remembers that when she joined the guild, the show only consisted of antiques and refreshments of cheese and crackers.

Now the group serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, Davilla says, at the Riverboat Melting Pot Cafe, which lists American favorites served by the eighth-graders at St. Christopher School.

"The kids look forward to becoming eighth-graders so they can do this," Davilla says.

St. Christopher eighth-grade student Nazzy Rodriguez, 13, says she enjoyed serving people at the restaurant and thought the fundraiser worked well because "everybody knows everybody."

That's why parishioner Neila Bowden returns every year.

"It's the community," she says. "After I've done it for years, it's fun to go and not work." Her children are now 20 and 23, but she's still connected through the church.

Bowden says the event is a major undertaking that requires an entire year of planning.

"We'll literally start planning next week for next year," Saldivar says.

Julia Holenstein, who oversaw the boutique committee, says she learned so much in one year that "I'll never have to buy a present again. I'll just make it," she says. And she appreciates St. Christopher's close-knit community.

Everybody pitches in, whether they're making 225 dozen pizzelles or providing security at the event, Saldivar says.

Antique Trove vintage-linen dealers Tonja Parsons and Cathy Nicho say it's the extra touches that make St. Christopher's Antique Show the only one they attend.

"It's a good cause and they take care of us," Parsons says. "The boys bring us drinks and help us unload our vehicles."

Nicho says they've been appearing at the show for 14 years and that this year had a "pretty good crowd."