After spending its first 30 years in Mascoutah, the National Foundation for Ectodermal Dysplasias will move Saturday to Fairview Heights to be more centrally located.

The international charity's new home will be in Suite 2 at 6 Executive Drive. The phone number -- 566-2020 -- and website address -- www.nfed.org -- will remain the same. The new office will open Monday.

"It's very bittersweet to be leaving," Judy Woodruff, the group's executive director, said of leaving the current office at 410 E. Main St. in Mascoutah. "From day one when Mary K. Richter founded the NFED, the Mascoutah community has embraced our mission and supported us. They have helped us developed into the organization we are today."

In late 1981, Richter, the mother of a young boy with ectodermal dysplasia, formed the organization as a resource for those with the genetic disorder, which is often characterized by sparse hair, malformed teeth and a lack of sweat glands.

The group has touched the lives of nearly 6,000 families in 70 countries and has funded more than $1 million in research at 40 centers around the world.