By Chris Hagan
Review Staff Writer
Four years ago, Dutton Farm’s co-founder Jenny Brown attended a fashion show put on by Grace Centers of Hope benefiting women who were victims of violence.
The women, who had graduated from the Grace Centers of Hope program, were the models in the show.
She saw the opportunity to take the same concept but apply it to the people that she has dedicated her life to helping, those with special needs. Individuals with all kinds of developmental disabilities will have the opportunity to forget the things society has told them they will never do.
Dutton Farm’s 4th Annual Holiday Fashion Show is on October 27 at Woodside Bible Church on Joslyn Rd inside Canterbury Village.
More than 30 models will take to the runway, all of which will be shuttled over in a limo and be greeted by a red carpet.
Doors open at 6:30p.m. and the event starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 and Dutton Farm will be hosting a silent auction, which includes an array of items from cooking classes, to MSU memorabilia signed by Spartans basketball Coach Tom Izzo.
Brown’s organization partners with Carson’s of Rochester, which provides the glamorous clothing the models will be wearing on the runway.
“People with developmental disabilities are always being told what they can’t do, what they’re never going to do, but this is their moment to showcase what they can do,” Brown said.
“It puts them in the spotlight for positive reasons and it gives parents the opportunity to relish in their child succeeding,” she said.
The fashion show has become an overwhelming success and has grown into Dutton Farm’s largest and most important fundraiser.
The money raised by the fashion show will continue to support Dutton Farms’ mission to aid in furthering the lives of those with developmental disabilities.
Funds will go towards job coaches, developing new job sites and learning skilled trades to allow those with disabilities to not only become more independent, but also have transferable job skills in the workforce.
“The individuals that we work with usually do not have the prospect of employment independently, so we promote this interdependence with a job coach and a person with a disability,” Brown said.
Brown also says they’re earmarking money to build a respite residential home. It will allow for those with special needs to be cared for in a safe environment.
Because many parents may still care for their children into their 40s, Brown said the home will allow parents to drop off their special needs child in a safe, professional environment if they want to take a trip.
“I still know parents who are toileting their children, so to be able to have a house that’s trustworthy that truly cares about each individual to give these parents a break,” she said.
“They’ll be able to leave them with us for two weeks and have nothing to worry about.”