TIFTON — Conger LP Gas and Short & Paulk Supply Company will host the second annual South Georgia Home Showcase on Feb. 11 and 12 at the UGA Tifton Campus Conference Center.

The event will feature over 100 home improvement and propane manufacturers.

While Feb. 11 will be geared towards contractors, Feb. 12 will be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Attendees can visit booths on the show floor and see demonstrations from special celebrity guests including Lauri Jo Bennett of Lauri Jo’s Southern Style Canning, Southern Living Magazine Garden Lifestyle Expert Carmen Johnston and Celebrity Chef Chip Reed.

Attendees may also register to win more than $20,000 in door prizes from Short and Paulk and Conger LP Gas.

“These are not little giveaways,” Richardson said. “There will be generators. There will be $1,500 towards a day of your choice at the King and Prince over in St. Simons Island. We have the stand-up patio heaters that we’re going to be giving away.”

Short said that they would be giving away “paint-a-room” kits and “mom’s toolbox” as door prizes among other things.

The home show was the brainchild of Short and Paulk President Jay Short and Conger LP Gas President and CEO Dan Richardson.

“February of 2018 was the first one,” Richardson said. “That went beyond our wildest dreams.”

“We were floored,” Short said. “If 300 people had showed up last year, I would have been happy. We had probably between 1,500 to 1,800 people come through.”

This year Richardson and Short said they have added in more variety of exhibits and demonstrations.

“One of the biggest complaints we had last year was that we had a bunch of classes for the contractors to go to, but there wasn’t enough for the women,” Short said. “This year we’re bringing in a whole new dimension.”

Attendees can pre-register online for free at gahomeshowcase.com. Registration at the door on the day of the event will be $10 per person with all door proceeds donated to the Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House Building Fund.

Richardson said that support for the building fund was very important.

“It’s such a great cause,” he said. “Spousal abuse has been one of the great hidden things over the years. It’s always been with us, but it used to be one of those things families just swept under the rug. The wife would have to put up with it because she felt she had no other choice, she had no one else to help her. Now a woman in that situation has someone she can go to and she can take her children with her. She now has a safe place she can be and they’re going to find support for her.”

There will also be a concession stand at the event with coffee and donuts being given out in exchange for donations for Literacy Volunteers of Tiftarea.