May 25, 2004

SCVCC Women’s Club raises $3,000-plus for Diabetes Society
Second Annual Fashion Show a sell out

Combine a room full of friends gathering for a tasty lunch in a spacious, bright dining room with breathtaking views.

Mix in the latest featured fashions from Santana Row—modeled by your friends—and add in the excitement of a raffle that offers alluring prizes and benefits a worthy cause.

Then invite wacky emcee Lissa Kreisler from 94.5 KBAY to keep you laughing, and what do you get? The Second Annual Fashion Show and Luncheon, entirely planned and orchestrated by the Silver Creek Valley Country Club Women’s Club on May 19 to benefit the Diabetes Society of Santa Clara Valley.

“Our goal was to raise more money than we did last year and to be sure that all of our guests, as well as our models, had a really enjoyable experience,” said Program Director Johnette Browning. This year’s event exceeded their goals by raising more than $3,000 for the Diabetes Society, she said. Last year’s fashion show raised more than $1,050 for the American Heart Association.

About SCVCC Women Club
SCVCC Women’s Club President Gwen Bindon kicked of the luncheon portion with a brief introduction of how the club came about. Many women were new to the area, and all were new to the community upon moving to Silver Creek Valley Country Club.

To promote friendships among neighbors and residents, the Women’s Club began as a Book Club. Once established, the original members began planning day trips and birthday celebrations.

With an intent to be inclusive, each one in the group invited a friend or neighbor to join them. Four years later, the group of 20 women has grown to more than 140 women.

Monthly activities include luncheon programs, birthday tea celebrations, a monthly matinee movie, couples’ dinners, an annual vendor’s market and day trips to explore and enjoy the surrounding communities.

Benefiting educational camp programs
Before the Fashion Show began, Sharon Ogbor, executive director of the Diabetes Society, told the audience that more than 500 kids will be going to diabetes camps this summer. “Over 50 percent of our kids come from single head of household families with four members or more making less than $50,000 a year,” said Ogbor.

She explained that if there’s diabetes in the family, a parent “wakes up every night, in the middle of the night, checking blood sugar levels—checking to make sure that child stays alive. It’s a life-threatening condition.”

She added that the educational camps benefiting from the proceeds of the Fashion Show teach children new skills every week. “We teach them how to take care of themselves.

If they don’t know how to do their own injection when they come to camp, they know how to do it when they leave.”

Fashion Show Coordinator Lynne Semkiw picked the Diabetes Society as this year’s beneficiary because of her personal experience of losing a mother-in-law to diabetes and having a father who has been diagnosed with diabetes.

Model Barbara Werner also shared the challenges of having two children with Type I diabetes. “It is a devastating disease. It does affect the whole family and the whole community,” said Werner. “I’m so proud to live in a community like Silver Creek, where there are so many wonderful people who take time out of their day and money out of their wallets to donate to a good cause.”

The Fashion Show
Professional makeup artists from Kasé and professional hair designers from W’s Salon prepped the models before they displayed Santana Row fashions from Babette, Chico’s, DeCre, Escada, La Camisole, Oilily and Smith Alder.

Evening gowns were accented by Landau Jewelry and sunglasses worn by Oilily and La Camisole models were provided by Optical Illusions.

All proceeds from the raffle tickets and centerpieces designed by Bunches of Santana Row benefited the Diabetes Society. Generous raffle donations from the following merchants ensured a successful fundraiser: Babbette, Beau Bijou, Borders, Burberry, Club One, Jacadi, Landau Jewelry, Lisa’s Tea Treasures, Peets Coffee, Straits, Taryn Rose,
The Container Store, Vintage Wine Merchants and Wolford.

For more information about the Diabetes Society of Santa Clara Valley, visit the Web site: http://www.diabetesscv.org/.