The Daughters of the British Empire Kansas will host its annual British Faire and Tea on Saturday, November 16, from 10 am to 3 pm at the Abdallah Shrine Temple, 5300 Metcalf, Overland Park.
Despite a sell-out of the afternoon teas and Tuck boxes (prepared boxes filled with pastries to be enjoyed at home), there is plenty to enjoy at the Faire. For a $5 admission, attendees can browse among a variety of British vendors, purchase homemade tea pastries and finger sandwiches sold a la carte and enjoy a line-up of live entertainment. Drawings and Tombola (raffle) prizes will be given away.
Chairperson Karen Garrison, a Peculiar resident, has been involved in the organization since 1987 when she was only 13 years old. She follows in the footsteps of her British mother Sally Saar who joined in 1976 and founded the first faire. Garrison’s father, who was in the American Air Force, brought his British bride to live in Belton near the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. (“She was always quick to add that she was not a World War II bride!” says Garrison. “She was too young for that.”) There they raised their family. She, along with other British brides, eventually joined DBE to enjoy the British community and share its heritage among Kansas Citians.
Daughters of the British Empire was originally founded in 1909 by Sarah Josephine Meredith Langstaff, an English immigrant to the United States.
The annual afternoon sit-down teas draw as many as 120 participants. Renaissance Festival Royalty provides a very old British experience.
Garrison says the sale of Tuck boxes were introduced during the pandemic when gatherings were banned. The boxes have remained a hit.
Entertainment includes bagpipe, Highland dance, harp and brass band performers.
The Kansas chapter has 96 members from around the area. (The Missouri chapter is located in St. Louis.) Money from the event will support Hope House and The British Homes, a campus for rehabilitative services and seniors in Chicago.
To learn more about the Daughters of the British Empire in Kansas or the British Faire and Tea, visit debkansas.org.
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