Easterseals Fashion Event lets clients shine on stage
For Deana McCormack and her daughter, Haven, Easterseals Arkansas has been a part of life since 2007.
Haven, a high school senior, was born with a congenital heart defect, pulmonary stenosis. She was rushed to Arkansas Children’s Hospital for care shortly after birth.
“After her second surgery, when she was 12 days old, she coded, and they did CPR on her for 58 minutes,” Deana says. “Because of that lack of oxygen to her brain it caused some damage, cerebral palsy.”
Haven started speech, occupational therapy and physical therapy at Easterseals when she was 14 months old to help with speech and gross and fine motor skill delays.
“She’s been going ever since,” Deana says. “Some years she had up to seven or eight hours of therapy in a week.”
Haven was 7 when she participated in her first Easterseals Fashion Event. This time of year she starts looking forward to another stroll down the runway.
“I like getting ready, and I like seeing all the people,” Haven says.
This year’s event will begin at 7 p.m. April 2 at the Wally Allen Ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center, following hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction, with items including home maintenance and renovation, travel, cosmetic services and more.
Standing room tickets are $75 per person; a ticket for a reserved seat is $200. The event will raise money for the Easterseals therapy program.
Deana says Haven, who is doing well in typical classes at Mount St. Mary Academy, used a walker on the stage for the first few years she participated.
“In 2015, she started doing it without her walker,” she says.
Models are pampered by makeup artists and hairdressers before the show, and they get to dress in the latest styles from local stores.
“Different salons donate their time and will do hair for all the clients who want it done, so some years Haven has had fun high ponies or curls,” Deana says.
Some of Haven’s favorite Fashion Event outfits have been dresses and jumpsuits, although she has modeled everything from frilly Easter dresses to pleather leggings.
“They are so fun to wear,” Haven says of the fashions vendors supply for the event.
They have the option of leaving the outfits behind or taking them home.
“We usually tend to buy the outfit,” Deana says. “They are special outfits and they have special memories tied to them.”
Haven likes having those clothes in her closet for important occasions.
She sometimes gets a little nervous about walking out on stage, she admits. The butterflies she feels before strolling the runway melt away, though, when she sees the friendly faces cheering her on. There is an excitement in the air as she gets dressed and makes her way into the spotlight.
Haven enjoys traveling, watching “Gilmore Girls,” “This Is Us” and “Friends,” and playing games, including poker. She especially enjoys doing things for the organization that has helped build independence over the years.
“We love what Easterseals has done for us. They have made a difference in our lives and in Haven’s life, for sure,” Deana says. “The therapists there are like family and they take care of you. Haven had heart surgery when she was 2 and her [occupational therapist] worked with her to make sure she could drink out of a straw at the hospital because that’s how they would make her drink.”
Therapists have taken her to grocery stores so she could practice using a cart and to a party store to help her manage picking things up off shelves.
“They would take her out on ‘dates’ and make her order and speak to the waiters,” Deana says. “When she started at each of her schools her therapist came and helped us walk through the halls and helped us figure out what we needed to do. And they are ready to go to college with us and figure out what we need to do there, too.”
Haven has not chosen a college but has been accepted by three so far. Her dream is to open a fancy boutique hotel someday.
Haven’s father, John McCormack, gained national attention in 2015 when he completed a month-long motorcycle ride across the country on the Trans-America Trail to raise awareness and raised more than $96,000 in donations for Easterseals. A documentary, “Haven’s Road,” chronicled his journey.
The family has participated in various Easterseals fundraisers over the years, like Rollin’ on the River, a 5K race and 2K family fun walk.
“We always had a Haven’s Heroes team,” Deana says.
The McCormacks also take any opportunity they can to educate people.
“It’s not the case so much anymore that people are rude to people who have special needs,” Deana says. “But they are often just ignored or left out. Not necessarily intentionally, but still. Her desire is just to be like everybody else and to be a part of everything.
“The Easterseals Fashion Event gives those clients — some of them may have cerebral palsy and some of them may have autism and some of them may have [Down syndrome] — it gives them a chance to be like everybody else.”
More information about the event is available at easterseals.com/arkansas/get-involved/events/thefashion-event.html.