Local business owners and Hillsdale alumni combined forces to celebrate a “girl’s night out” shopping day at Maggie Anne’s Boutique in downtown Hillsdale to raise breast cancer awareness on Oct. 10.
Hillsdale College alumna Patti Bailey ’87, owner of Maggie Anne’s, and alumna Stacey Murdock-Webster ’92, Stella & Dot fashion stylist and director of research and prospect management for the college, hosted their Shop for a Cure event at Maggie Anne’s and featured snacks and Stella & Dot merchandise on sale.
“We had champagne, we had cupcakes, and we just tried to make it a really fun time,” Bailey said.
The event included merchandise from Vera Bradley, Stella & Dot, and Brighton, each of which donates the proceeds from designated items to support breast cancer awareness and research foundations. This includes several pieces of Stella & Dot jewelry, Brighton bracelets, and Vera Bradley’s line of Katalina Pink items.
In addition to the sale of these items, the event included two drawings for a Brighton tote bag and a Vera Bradley backpack. According to Nichole Ellis, local pediatrician and friend of Bailey and Murdock-Webster, Shop for a Cure was well-attended.
“I made a special trip to see them and shop. There was a good turnout,” Ellis said. “There were about eight women who were shopping in the hour I was there.”
Bailey and Murdock-Webster first had the idea to combine forces this year when they discovered that both of their organizations supported a common cause.
“Stacey and I were talking, and discovered that between her Stella & Dot line and my Vera Bradley and Brighton lines, both had items that profited breast cancer awareness foundations,” Bailey said. “So we decided to get it all together in one location, and invite everybody to come and celebrate breast cancer awareness day, and make a big deal of it. It just kind of snowballed from there.”
They planned the event to coincide with Parents Weekend in order expand attendance beyond their own clientele. According to Bailey, around 50 people attended the event throughout the course of the day. This included freshman Hope Jonker and her mother, who won the drawing for the Vera Bradley backpack.
“It was an excellent turnout. I think people really enjoyed it,” Bailey said. “It was about four hours that we were pretty busy, and we looked up, and we were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s almost one o’clock already!’”
Bailey said the Vera Bradley Katalina Pink line of merchandise was started because the owner of Vera Bradley wanted to honor the memory of a friend who succumbed to breast cancer.
“It’s very near and dear to their hearts because the owner of Vera Bradley had a dear friend that passed away because of breast cancer,” Bailey said. “She wanted to do something to honor her memory, so that’s what they came up with.”
The Stella & Dot sales extend throughout the month of October and Brighton will feature a special fundraiser bracelet next month.
“They did a neat thing this year where they had three different bracelets that were available,” Bailey said. “They did a follow-up bracelet that came in a few days ago, which is supposed to be promoted throughout November, because they say breast cancer awareness should not just be in October, it’s a year-round thing that women always need to be aware of.”
After hosting a successful event this year, Bailey and Murdock-Webster hope to host Shop for a Cure again in the future.
“I think we need to. We talked after we were done and said, ‘We need to do this more often,’” Bailey said. “We had fun, the customers seemed to have fun. It’s just nice to have so many people in the store, and all shopping for the same cause.”
