Melissa Lemer Corrects the Record Regarding Governor Palin's Visit to the Silver Spoon (UPDATED)

Melissa Lemer, co-owner of The Silver Spoon, has released the following statement regarding Governor Palin's visit yesterday and the false stories being promulgated by the lamestream media.

The Silver Spoon, a company owned and operated by women and established with a firm belief in supporting women in business and leadership, invited Governor Sarah Palin and her family to participate in a charitable function sponsored by The Silver Spoon and the Red Cross to support the Red Cross’ disaster relief efforts in Haiti. Governor Palin graciously accepted since it was in support of such a worthy and timely cause. The governor arrived with a small group about 15 minutes prior to our store’s official opening; and upon arrival, she and her entire group gave generous donations to the cause. We offered to open early to accommodate her schedule; she did not ask us to open early. The other vendors routinely set up an hour before the event opens, so they were already there when the governor arrived. No one was asked to come in early. When Governor Palin arrived, she and her guests made generous donations. I escorted her around and introduced her to every vendor, and they talked to her about their products and gifted her with samples. She never asked for anything but politely accepted the products. The governor and her family and guests were very gracious and respectful to everyone. We asked and the governor happily agreed to take a photo with the American Red Cross staff and the staff of The Silver Spoon. The governor stayed for a total of about 35 minutes, thanked everyone, made an additional generous personal donation pledge to the Red Cross, and then departed.

The stories currently circulating about Governor Palin’s attendance at our event are total fabrications. Just one example of the many falsehoods is the ridiculous idea that Governor Palin walked away with 40 AIAIAI headphones. In reality, she was given two pairs of AIAIAI headphones – one for herself and one for her daughter Bristol who could not attend the event. The idea that she took 40 pairs is an outrageous falsehood. It would have been impossible because the vendors only bring around 100 items for the entire two day event. They would have run out of product after an hour of opening yesterday.

Just to clarify things, the entire point of giving someone a swag bag is to have them take your product and hopefully purchase more. The whole point of giving away products is to “give them away.” That’s why we call this type of event style a “gifting suite.”

We would like an immediate retraction and an apology to The Silver Spoon, its vendors, and especially to Governor Sarah Palin.

UPDATE: Here is Melissa Lemer's official statement.

Update #2: Andrew Breitbart and his Alpaca demand the official retraction of this story.