Spring Blooms! Fashion Show to Support the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Family Room

Colchester, Vermont – The UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice (VNA) will host its popular Spring Blooms! Fashion Show and Luncheon on Thursday, April 9, 2015. This spring the fashion show will take place at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Burlington; over 200 guests are expected to attend in support of the Janet S. Munt Family Room, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice’s Parent-Child Center housed in Burlington’s Old North End. Registration for event is open through April 2 and is available online at www.vnacares.org/Fashion15.

The Spring Blooms! Fashion Show is the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Family Room’s largest annual fundraiser.  Guests will enjoy a luncheon as “community celebrity models” show off spring and summer fashions from local clothiers including Ecco Clothes, Men’s Warehouse, SportStyle, Spellbound and Wylie Sofia Garcia.

This year’s models include: Steve MacQueen, artistic director for the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; Lori McBride, UVM women’s basketball head coach; Kristin Carlson, director of media at Green Mountain Power and former WCAX anchor; Dale Loeffler, owner of Catering by Dale; and Hal Colston, director of the Partnership for Change and 2014 Vermonter of the Year. (See full list of models below)

Colston, who served on the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board of Directors for two terms, including a term as board chair, described the Family Room as “the jewel of our UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice.”

“When we say the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice cares, this comes to life in the Family Room.  When we experience our very high quality of life, it is because of programs like the Family Room,” Colston said.  “I hope many others will join me in supporting the unsung hero in our community, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Family Room.”

Since 1988, the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Family Room has provided essential services and programs that support our community’s most vulnerable families. Resources and services are provided at no cost to families and their children from birth to age 6.   Programs include parent support groups, a licensed preschool, and classes such as English as a Second Language, computer, cooking, and sewing. For more information on the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Family Room, visit www.vnacares.org.

The 2015 UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Cares for Children award recipient will be announced at the luncheon.  The award honors an individual whose efforts have enabled a vital aspect of the UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice’s work, caring for our communities’ children. Last year’s award was given to former UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board Chair Jim Madison, a longtime champion of Family Room services who has hosted several apple picking field trips on his family’s orchard.

Event sponsors include: Hanson & Doremus Investment Management ; Bergeron, Paradis and Fitzpatrick; Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C.; Dousevicz Real Estate; Northfield Savings Bank; Peregrine Design Build; Pines Senior Living Community; Queens City Printers, Inc.; Coldwell Banker Hickok & Boardman Realty; Essex Outlets and Cinema; Gadue’s Dry Cleaning; New England Federal Credit Union; Paul Frank + Collins; Pomerleau Real Estate; Wake Robin and Vermont Tent Company.

To register for the Spring Blooms! Fashion Show and Luncheon, call Crystal Vendrell at 860-4435 or register online at www.vnacares.org/Fashion15 by April 3. Tickets to the benefit are $65 per person.  Table sponsorships are available.

Full List of Models for the 2015 Spring Blooms! Fashion Show

  • Steve MacQueen, Artistic Director for Flynn Center for the Performing Arts
  • Hal Colston, Director of Partnership for Change, Founder of Good News Garage, and 2014 Vermonter of the Year (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/editorials/2014/12/31/vermonter-year-hal-colston/21050483/)
  • Kevin Veller, UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice hospice study project manager
  • Dale Loeffler, owner of Catering by Dale
  • Hannah Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Vermont America (2013)
  • Hawa Sheikh, Family Room mom
  • Patricia Donehower, RN, MSN, former UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Vice President of Clinical Services and newly appointed member of the UVM Medical Center Board of Trustees
  • Nancy Barnes, community supporter
  • Lori McBride, Head Coach, UVM Women’s Basketball
  • Jillian Bartolo, Design and Sales at Peregrine Design Build
  • Michell Langlais, director of sales for Courtyard Burlington Harbor
  • Kristin Carlson, director of media for Green Mountain Power and former WCAX anchor
  • Evan Goldsmith, Founder of Hope for Women and UVM Health Network – Home Health & Hospice Board member
  • Mikey van Gulden, Founder and CEO of Chocolate Thunder Securities