Showing off the latest fashions while telling their own stories of survival, 18 Mid-Missouri breast cancer survivors hit the runway Monday as part of the annual Strut Your Style Breast Cancer Survivors Show and Luncheon.
More than 300 people filled the ballroom as they watched 17 women and one man from the local community model trendy fashions and highlight the core message of Strut Your Style - cancer is not a death sentence.
Strut Your Style raises funds for the Community Breast Care Project, which helps people diagnosed with breast cancer in Cole, Callaway, Osage, Miller, Morgan, Moniteau and Camden counties.
Sherrie Brant, the event's lead organizer, said the organization provides $500 for each patient to help offset the mounting costs associated with treatment and recovery. The project has donated $200,000 to 400 breast cancer patients since 2007.
Last year, the Strut Your Style event donated $27,000 to the project, which seeks to provide educational, financial and emotional support to those in Central Missouri on breast health and breast cancer treatment. This year, Brant said she is hoping to donate at least $20,000 to the project, but she also wants find another local breast cancer organization to which to donate the remaining funds.
This year's show featured fashions from Southbank, Carrie's Hallmark, Dillard's, Chico's, the Fur Center, American Shoe and Pink Poppy Boutique, among many others. Each model was escorted by a different doctor or representative of one of the area's hospitals, including Capital Region Medical Center and St. Mary's Hospital.
After the last model walked the runway and those in attendance began to file out, or take a closer look at some of the furs used in the show from the Fur Center, Brant let out a deep breath and noted how everything turned out well, despite some last-minute issues. Unfortunately, one of the planned models, Gerri Madsen, was in a car accident Monday morning and unable to make it to the show, Brant said. One of the doctors meant to escort models got sick and couldn't make it. And the person originally planned to make the invocation at the start of the event had to cancel after a family health crisis.
However, Brant said, the other models and escorts stepped up to help in each case.
"Everything went well," Brant said.
Brant has worked for the last few months on finalizing each detail of the show, and will soon start planning the sixth annual event for next year. The work can be a lot to take on, but it's worth it at the end, she said.
"I don't think you realize the heart that's involved," Brant told the audience as she introduced some of the other women who helped plan and organize Strut Your Style.
In addition to the fashion show, the event featured Derlene Hirtz, founder of You.Empowered Services, as the keynote speaker. Hirtz told attendees of how she learned the importance of being a "world changer" and the "power of a second" as she embarked on a goal to meet 1,200 people in one year.
Attendees also enjoyed a silent auction and door prizes, and four survivors were announced as receiving the Thrivers Cruise Scholarship, which allows four local women to take part in the Thrivers Cruise, hosted by Breast Wellness Magazine. This year's winners were Suzanne Burkett-Boes, Alice Houska, Liz Morrow and Roxane Sargent.