
For the 30th annual Luncheon and Fashion Benefit, the Colleyville Woman's Club is turning the clock back to some of the features that made the show a major factor in the more than $3.3 million the club has raised for charity since its founding in 1978.
When the benefit first started, members of the club were the models. As the show grew over the years - at some points so large that it had to be moved to a hotel in Dallas to handle all the guests - fashion sponsors brought in professional models.
But this year, says Tammy Nakamura, the 2015 show chair, community models are back - for several reasons.
"What I wanted to focus on was to give as many dollars back to our charities as possible, and over the years, we spent a lot of money on models," she said. "Cutting down on paying for professional models helps us to give more money back to our charities."
But there is another reason - to inject a bit of reality into the show. "When professional models were up on the runway, most people would look at them and go, "Well, that looks nice on her, but she's a size negative 2, and I could never fit in that," " Nakamura said.
Long-time member Suzanne Harrington agrees. "There is a camaraderie that is developed with club models, and actually a positive side of it because people sitting in the audience know those people. They see the clothes on them, and they say, "Oh, that would also look good on me," which you don't necessarily think when they see it on a professional model, because they expect her to be able to wear anything."
This year's show is March 20 at the Hurst Conference Center, 1601 Campus Drive. The show opens at 9:30 a.m. for shopping and ends at 2 p.m., after the luncheon and fashion show, presented this year by Dillard's.
The Colleyville Woman's Club started in 1978 as the Colleyville Newcomer's Club with Penny Schmitz as the first dues-paying member. On Dec. 13, 1983, the 30 members of the organization voted to become the Colleyville Woman's Club. Adopting the singular possessive "Woman's." was a decision that would forever plague the organization, notes historian Harrington with some amusement.
Money the club raises through the fashion benefit and other fundraisers - a holiday home tour and what is described as the 's.pirited annual Bridge Marathon" - benefit a number of charitable organizations and fund six scholarships and a program to recognize youthful volunteers across a 16-city area.
Early and continuing beneficiaries are programs that work with abused women and their children, such as SafeHaven - formed in 2006 by the merger of The Women's Shelter and Women's Haven - and GRACE - Grapevine Relief And Community Exchange.
"Colleyville Woman's Club has been an active supporter of GRACE since 1992," says Executive Director Shonda Schaefer. "There is not a single program at GRACE that is not touched by Colleyville Woman's Club. From the Christmas Cottage to Transitional Housing to Feed Our Kids, members of Colleyville Women's Club graciously give of their time and talents to serve our community. In addition, CWC has given nearly $400,000 to GRACE over the last 20 years to support our neighbors in need."
Woman's Haven of Tarrant County was the beneficiary of the very first style show in 1986, chaired by June Kasper. "As domestic violence was the first cause the Colleyville Women's Club supported, their impact is significant and sustaining," said SafeHaven President and CEO Mary Lee Hafley. "In the early years, funding from CWC literally kept the Fort Worth shelter's doors open. Even today, their substantial gifts ensure that safety remains accessible for all women and children seeking to escape abuse and find fresh hope."
Shirley Schollmeyer moved to Colleyville in 1973 and has been both president of the club and chair of the fashion benefit. "In the beginning, Colleyville was so small, and there were women who wanted to get to know each other and actually do something for somebody else," she said. The club grew quickly from its original small nucleus as Colleyville expanded with an influx of new residents.
Suzanne Harrington, a former president of the club, moved to Colleyville in 1986. That was on the leading edge of the population boom. The club had 30 or 40 members at that time, she recalls. At one point, there were more than 300 members.
"There was that period of time in this whole area where businesses were moving lots of people in and moving people out. They did a whole lot more moving than they do now," Harrington said. "We all moved into the neighborhood at the same time, and so people needed that bonding. That's what the Woman's Club provided. It just provided a bonding experience for a whole lot of newcomers coming into the area.
"It has a social side to it which offers what they call the interest groups.
That was what was so appealing back when the population began to explode, because people would be attracted to that, and they would come in and they met a lot of people," she said.
But it was never just social. The charitable aspect is dear to the hearts of the members.
You don't have to live in Colleyville to be a member, and Nakamura first got involved in 1999 when she was living in DeSoto, but planning to move to Colleyville. "Once I got involved with the Colleyville Woman's Club, I liked the group of women because they are a very giving group of women and we give back to so many different charities," she said.
The club solicits its members for advice on what areas and organizations to support, but the decisions are made by a grants and allocations committee that reviews applications and then makes funding decisions. "The Woman's Club has the most wonderfully neutral process for giving away its money," Harrington said.
That is the ongoing attraction for Schollmeyer. "Everything we do here is pretty dear to me because I help in all of those organizations. Abused women and children, Safe Haven," she said. "Basically, I've supported everything that our organization supports also, from the arts to our city, our civic center, our senior citizens. We feel it is important to everybody to experience everything from the arts to a safe life."
She thinks that's also the attraction for other members. "They can come and support and have fun and meet other women, other professional women, yet they are giving something back to the community," Schollmeyer said.
In addition to the Treasure Chest, the luncheon will feature a silent auction and what Nakamura calls an Experience Board, which bundles trips, overnight stays and dining. And there will be a live auction for some big-ticket items.
The club has scaled the fashion benefit back somewhat from the days when attendance of close to a thousand people forced it to Dallas hotels to stage. "That's where we had the really big ones," Harrington said. "But we're a Tarrant County organization, and the businesses that support us are primarily Tarrant County, so we did feel a kind of obligation to return to our roots and hold this in an area where the businesses are that all support us."
With the large shows and their fashion sponsors came the use of professional models in 1999 at the then-Wyndham Anatole's Chantilly Ballroom for a Saks Fifth Avenue spectacular.
"With a show that is very fast paced, they are hiring just a certain number of models, and that may mean that they have to do very quick changes. They're literally stripping everything off as they exit the stage," Harrington said. "We have a couple of guys who request every year to be in this area."
That brings us to Men of Distinction - once called Gentlemen of Distinction until someone noticed the acronym - who serve as table hosts for women who attend the luncheon. They generally are drawn from community leaders and celebrities and the like and are attentive to the needs of the ladies at their tables. Any tips they receive go to the club.
People who are not involved in events like the fashion benefit and luncheon do not understand the amount of work that goes into staging something like this. The volunteers who put them on do so out of a sense of obligation and community service.
Club members recognize that the spirit of volunteerism needs to be nurtured early in life, and that's why the club started its own program to honor for youthful volunteers, Harrington said. The program recognizes young volunteers at three levels and ranging in age from as young as 5 years old through 19 in four age brackets. There is no money attached to the recognitions, but another program, the youth Volunteer Service Grants, does function as a scholarship with funds paid directly to an institution such as a college or other school based on volunteer service throughout high school.