Local merchants are hoping an evening of food and fashion
– and even a little skin – will raise money for a good
cause.
Boutique de Lingerie is hosting its third annual Evening of Hope
Fashion Show and Dinner to raise money for breast cancer awareness
and education. The event will be held Saturday, Oct. 11 at the
Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Hollister.
Fashions from five local stores will be featured, including
Boutique de Lingerie, Dick Bruhn, Drapoel, She’s and Just
Friends.
Local merchants are hoping an evening of food and fashion – and even a little skin – will raise money for a good cause.
Boutique de Lingerie is hosting its third annual Evening of Hope Fashion Show and Dinner to raise money for breast cancer awareness and education. The event will be held Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Hollister.
Fashions from five local stores will be featured, including Boutique de Lingerie, Dick Bruhn, Drapoel, She’s and Just Friends.
Jeannine Porteur-DiVincenzo, the owner of Boutique de Lingerie, began hosting the fashion show in memory of her cousin, Juli-An Rowe, who died from breast cancer in 1999 at the age of 45.
The past years’ successes have enabled the shop to donate funds to the Susan G. Komen and Lerner Lymphedema Center to support cancer research.
This year’s proceeds will be donated to the Community Foundation for San Benito County, with the money that’s raised hopefully living on for years to come, Porteur-DiVincenzo said. It will also help to provide a scholarship fund to children who have lost a parent or grandparent to cancer.
In addition to the countless women who lose their fight with breast cancer every day, this year’s show will also honor Karen Flaherty, a San Benito County resident who recently died from breast cancer.
The fund is an endowment account titled Hope for a Cure Memorial Scholarship Fund – In Memory of Juli-An Rowe and Karen Flaherty.
The past success have shown that county residents are more than willing to donate time, money and energy to this important cause, Porteur-DiVincenzo said.
“We live in the best community,” she said. “People get behind every event, which is just heartwarming.”
Community members have donated gifts for raffle door prizes, sent money in for the foundation fund or to support the fashion show if they can’t attend, she said.
The Home Depot, which is a strong supporter in the fight against breast cancer, donated a $400 chop saw, which DiVincenzo hopes will entice more men to attend.
“Men make it more fun,” she said.
The scholarship fund and money raised is important to promote awareness, but even more importantly it gives women hope, DiVincenzo said. Educating women that a breast cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence is paramount. With the multitude of treatments available women are living longer and longer every year.
The benefit will be held Oct. 11, at the Veterans Memorial Building downtown, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Details: Jeannine, Lisa or Jennifer at 635-0722.
