Some 1,200 caregivers from six counties, including Oakland and Macomb, are expected to attend a caregiver appreciation day and fashion show at the Palazzo Grande Banquet Center from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on May 16.
Caregivers who help people with developmental disabilities
will be honored with the Caregiver Angels Award. In addition, 100 caregivers
and people with disabilities will model clothes in the Kohl’s Caregiver Fashion
Show.
Tim Joy from North Oakland Residential Services and Macomb
County Executive Mark Hackel will address the attendees. The Shelby Township
event is hosted by MORC, Inc., a nonprofit that provides services in Oakland,
Macomb and Wayne counties to people with disabilities. Besides these three
counties, caregivers from St. Clair, Genesee, and Lapeer counties also will
attend the fashion show.
The Kohl’s fashion show is not typical in that people with
disabilities and their caregivers model together. Models are selected not based
on appearance but on how meaningful the experience will be to them.
“We have people who were locked away in
institutions or who face extreme challenges with their disabilities who never
dreamed of being in a show,” said Sue Gipperich, MORC supports coordination
supervisor and host of the event.
“Caregivers and family members who model
with loved ones are thrilled to see how much it means for a person to be cheered
on by a crowd of over 1,000.”
Maggie Lewis with Kohl’s Cares for Kids
in Rochester Hills, the show’s sponsor, said, “It is not your run-of-the-mill
show and not your deadpan expressionless models. There's more screaming,
cheering, laughing and smiling than you'll see at any event ever.”
Gerald Provencal, the executive director
of MORC, said, “I am proud of all our caregivers who do so much to help our
people live rich and full lives.”
Kohl’s is donating $15,000 worth of
clothes to the models. Stylists from two salons also have volunteered to help
models with hair and makeup.
The Caregiver Angels Awards, funded by
Dr. Arthur Woehrlen, a Macomb County dentist, will honor 10 caregivers an “Angels”
jacket, and a check for $250. A new caregiver award will be presented in
honor of Colleen O'Neill Brayton, one of the original organizers of the MORC
Caregiver Appreciation Day, who died in 2012.
Jerry
Wolffe, a disability rights advocate and writer in residence at MORC Inc., can
be reached at 586 263 8950.