The runway to recovery
PENN TWP — Models strutted down a 15-foot long runway Sunday, Oct. 15, at the Butler Country Club, their outfits taken right off the racks at local clothing stores and coordinated to show off the latest fall styles in the region.
The third annual fashion show at the country club has become the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center’s largest yearly fundraiser, and while it raises money for the recovery center’s programming, it also promotes self-expression, which can help in recovery.
“It makes people feel good,” said Ave Jack, executive assistant of the Gaiser Center and chairwoman for the fashion show committee. “To wear nice fashions you feel confident and you can express yourself.”
The fashion show featured 25 models showing off clothing from eight Butler County-based shops: Benjamin Beetle, Boutique 16063, Branded in Butler, Eva Brynn Shoetique, Forever Kindred, Keffalas Designs, the Savvy Jean Boutique, and Then and Again.
The sold-out event was attended by about 240 people, Jack said. It also boasted basket raffles and an auction of a Kenny Pickett Jersey, as well as a keynote speech from a client of the Gaiser Center. The jersey auction garnered a lot of interest, eventually selling for $500.
Joe Mahoney, executive director of the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center, said more than 20 vendors sold items at the event, and the fashion show also had 14 silent auction items and more than 50 raffle baskets.
The speech came from Barbara Moore, who said she could not have crossed into extended sobriety without the help of the Gaiser Center. She started the speech by saying that she never thought she would be sober, having been raised by a family where alcoholism was normalized.
Moore has been sober since June 27, 2017, when she was arrested in Venango County, which culminated in her going to the Gaiser Center.
“I was a mess — it was like my medicine was taken away,” Moore said. “I arrived at the Gaiser Center and they showed me nothing but love and compassion.”
The Gaiser Center has inpatient and outpatient treatment plans as well as medication-assisted treatment. Mahoney said the programs at the center help clients work through past issues to find healthy ways of coping, instead of turning to substance use.
“The programs uplift our clients’ new beginnings, and restore their hope in themselves and their families,” Mahoney said.
Moore said she previously modeled clothing for the fashion show, and, according to Jack, the Gaiser Center works with some of the local clothing shops as much as possible.
In the years since the start of her sobriety, Moore has gotten married, had a son and has continued working with the Gaiser Center. She said in her speech that being treated with kindness by Gaiser staff members in her early days at the center was the initial motivation she needed to start her recovery.
“When you are so beat down and you feel so less than, I thought I was in a place where I would never bounce back,” Moore said. “They would bring staff in and talk to us, and I remember there was this woman and she was talking about how hard it was to get me there from Venango County, and she looked me in the eyes and said, ‘You were worth it.’
“I can genuinely say I wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for Gaiser.”
