Hundreds filled the distinguished Garden City Hotel for the Rockville Centre Breast Cancer Coalition’s sixth annual fashion show. Guests from across the island came out for this highly awaited event filled with food, fashion and more, with looks provided by Bloomingdale’s.
“All the models are survivors, and they’re people who we’ve helped,” Erin O’Sullivan, co-president said on Oct. 24. “Some are our recipients, some are our care counselors, but they’re all survivors.”
The night was a huge success, raising roughly $100,000 for the BCC that will help the group continue to serve hundreds of breast cancer patients and survivors. All proceeds go to providing support services and financial support to those affected in the community managing through treatment and its impact on their lives.
“It’s a pretty empowering night,” she said. “And some of these women haven’t been dressed up and had makeup on and looked pretty for a really long time, and it’s emotional for them, but in a good way.”
Each year the coalition honors someone within the community. This year, Sara Reardon and Maureen Coyle, founders of Social Threads, were the honorees.
“What’s so great about these women is that they have been supporting our organization from day one,” O’Sullivan said. “They were actually the first people to jump in and give us clothes for our first fashion show we ever did. They support us in every single way possible, and they’ve just really been with us. They’ve grown with us throughout all the years.”
Reardon and Coyle grew up in Rockville Centre, and have taken their business from local to national. Reardon, a previous buyer for Bloomingdale’s, and Coyle, a former Wall Street executive, are more than business partners they’re sister-in-laws. They have been dedicated to providing fun, affordable, quality clothing. As full-time moms, they’re able to get busy while saving time to shop for themselves.
After the coalition’s was established in 2017, they have expanded its outreach outside Rockville Centre including over 40 towns on the South Shore of Nassau County helping over 100 women and their families.
They have also added three new pillars to their outreach program including RVCBCC Cares, helping those who are in financial crisis, RVCBCC Metastatic Fund, financially helping those who have long-term cancer diagnoses and RVCBCC Bereavement Fund, to help families of those who have lost their battle with breast cancer.
“Every week we’re getting somebody new,” O’Sullivan said. “Sometimes we get five a week, sometimes we get one a week, But there’s a consistent flow of people who are looking for help, financial, emotional, and this fundraiser covers all the money that we need to cover the outreach program.”
As the fashion show’s curtain closes out for the end of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the fight continues year round for the Rockville Centre Breast Cancer Coalition.
For more information on the Rockville Centre Breast Cancer Coalition, visit RVCBCC.org
