Tickets are on sale now for South Central Cancer Resource’s annual fashion show.
Tickets to the May 14 fundraiser went live first thing Tuesday morning, and they’re expected to go fast.
The popular event made the move from Morden to Winkler’s Meridian Exhibition Centre last year, to great success.
“We had just over 300 seats in Morden and now we’re shooting for 500,” says event committee member Cali Suderman. “We needed a bigger space … but it was definitely a shot in the dark. There were, I think, only eight seats left last year.”
Dubbed the Building Bridges Fashion Show, the evening will shine a spotlight on how one is never alone as they navigate a cancer journey.
“With a cancer diagnosis, you’re now looking at building a bridge,” Suderman says, explaining that each slat represents the community helping you get through it all.
“Within SCCR, we have our drivers that will help get you to treatments, that’s one slat. And you’ve got your nurse navigators that are helping coordinate your treatments. That’s another slat. You’ve got your church, your friends, your family, doctors—they all build up another slat.”
The hope is that you’ll walk that bridge together and come out the other side healthy again.
“You get up over the hump of your treatment and get back down to where you’re standing on solid ground,” Suderman says, noting “it’s a tough bridge to walk” but the journey is made a little easier when you have all these people you can lean on.
The evening will feature a rainbow auction, wine bar, desserts, and a panel discussion highlighting some of the services SCCR provides free of charge to local cancer patients.
“We’re going to have a volunteer driver and one of our office coordinators who organizers all the drivers, all the trips,” Suderman says, noting the region they serve is massive.
“It’s Winkler, Morden, Pilot Mound—everything from Morris south, basically—so these coordinators are working ridiculous hours with unbelievable numbers of people,” says Suderman. “It’s just to kind of give people an idea of these are the people involved in building your bridge, here’s what that looks like.”
Models walking the runway that night will be wearing fashions and accessories from Livienne Bridal Boutique, Copper & Sparrow Boutique, Knockabouts, Saban & Company, Amorakin, Focal Point, and Appelts Diamonds.
“All of the models are either walking in honour of someone—either someone that has passed or a family member that’s currently battling cancer—or they’re walking for themselves,” Suderman says. “Each of them is going to have a bit of their story told: this is my journey and this is how SCCR was able to help.
“Their stories deserve to be shared and they deserve to be listened to. It’s a very emotional evening, but it’s beautiful,” she says, adding it’s also an evening full of hope, with stories of people overcoming cancer and going on to live long, healthy lives. “We’ve got a model who’s been 40 years cancer free … there are stories where [a cancer battle] is just a blip on their radar.”
The event is SCCR’s biggest fundraiser of the year. Last year’s show set a new record with over $77,000 raised.
The funds go to support SCCR’s programming, which includes its patient transportation service, accommodation assistance, wigs and head coverings, skin screening clinics, lymphedema financial assistance, radon awareness and testing, and a variety of wellness programs aimed at helping those living with cancer feel better, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
“We in the Pembina Valley are so blessed to have SCCR,” Suderman says. “There are programs outside of this area where your enrolment is not free. With SCCR, you come in our doors and your costs are covered, no questions asked. You qualify because you live here and it is funded by our communities.”
In fact, the agency receives no government funding for its services—it’s all supported through donations.
“It’s a testament to how the Pembina Valley looks after one another,” Suderman says. “We just open our arms and say let’s get you through this.”
Tickets to the May 14 show, which starts at 7 p.m., are $65 and are available online at sccr.mb.ca.
