Fashion fundraiser
PENN TWP — Glitz and glamour were on display Sunday at the Butler Country Club for the sold out Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center Spring Fashion Show, the first fundraiser in the drug and alcohol treatment center’s 49 year history.
Seventeen female models and one male model displayed fashions from several area clothing shops to 220 people. The show was the centerpiece of a fundraiser that included a Chinese auction of 32 gift bags and a door prize donated by residents and businesses.
“This is our first ever. We’ve never had a fundraiser,” said Linda Franiewski, Gaiser Center executive director said. “We’re happy for the support of the people from the community.”
The money will go toward building serenity gardens where clients can meet with visiting family members. It will also help add playground equipment for children at Gaiser’s separate men’s and women’s inpatient treatment centers in Butler.
Franiewski said the gardens have benches, flowers and ornamental trees making them more comfortable than the impersonal group meeting rooms or lunch rooms. Neither center currently has playground equipment for kids brought to spend some time with their mothers or fathers, she said.
Donald Bullman, a member of the center board of directors and fashion show committee, said the board wanted to hold a different type of fundraiser to bring attention to the center. Members spent a year organizing the show.
“We wanted to shine the light on something positive that improves people’s lives. I’m so glad the community came together for this,” he said.
A woman told the audience that her stay in the center in 2010 led to her recovery from alcohol abuse.
“They cared if I lived or died. I felt that vibe right off the bat,” she said.
It was her third trip to a recovery center that year.
“I really wasn’t welcome anywhere else,” she said.
Franiewski said drug and alcohol abuse remains a problem, but many people are recovering.
“We still have a tremendous drug problem,” she said. “People are still dying ... but a lot of people are getting better. We are beginning to see they are getting clean and sober and getting their families back. It’s cool to be sober. We’re beginning to see the recovery process take hold. It’s pretty exciting.”
The center opened in 1970 on West Wayne Street as a sober living center for men in recovery. It was named after Ellen O’Brien Gaiser, who served as executive director from 1975, the year the first female client was admitted, until her death in 1994.
A new center opened in 2010 at the current location on Old Plant Road. A second building was built at the same site in 2017 creating separate housing for male and female clients.
