In 29 years, Debbie Ross has waded through countless heartache, embracing the hurt of others as her own. But this summer has been an especially hard one, riddled with loss that even a seasoned griever like herself never gets used to.
We had several funerals this summer and they just break your heart. Your heart never gets used to it, said Ross, director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Albany.
Living in the home even before it housed families and children who require an extended stay at Albany Medical Center, Ross has become like the heart of the house, captaining a large team of volunteers that keep the place pulsing, loving the families like her own and finding ways to keep the charity thriving. That means, fundraising.
On Thursday, Aug. 26, the 12th Annual Ronald McDonald House Charities Fashion Show will be held at the Rail Pavilion at Saratoga Race Course. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., fashionistas, wannabe-models or simple do-gooders can watch a high end fashion show with models and top shelf designs provided by Saratoga Trunk. There will also be a meet and greet with designers from New York City, a Silent Auction, a luncheon and dessert bar.
`This is basically a biggie for us. We look to raise about $100,000, which we normally hit,` said Ross, who said RMHC’s second major fundraiser is a radiothon at Crossgates Mall in January. `We’re able to get that little spot on the track, which is such a gift each year especially during Travers weekend. It’s mixed, so men and women both come; guys really like to do the betting and women like the fashion.`
Ross brings a few RMHC kids to the fashion show every year. This time she’s bringing two teenagers she calls `heroes of the day`an 18-year-old boy and 16-year-old girl who are friends battling cancer. She said it will be fun for them to see this year’s new features.
`There will be a children’s fashion show. Some [of the models] are sick, some are volunteers’ children, but as they walk down the runway they will be donating a wishlist item to RMHC,` said Ross. `We really feel they represent the 16,000 families who have been through the doors since we opened; it’s what we’re all about, which is kids and hope that they’ll get better.`
Several jockey wives and their daughters will help celebrate this year and Ross said the show usually sells out, packing the tent to its max of 500.
To pull off a fashion show with such fanfare and big city feel, it takes a team of volunteer committee members scrambling behind the scenes to brainstorm, coordinate and ensure it goes off without a hitch. This year’s co-chairs are Dr. Mark Moreau and his wife Carole, of Smile Sanctuary, a dental practice in Saratoga Springs.
`I got involved specifically for my office manager who has a son who had numerous surgeries and had to use the facilities and services of RMHC for almost 20 years,` said Moreau, who relocated his practice from Canton in 2008. `I’d not really gotten involved in too many charitable events before, but I was at a stage where I wanted to get involved. I listened to many things my office manager experienced through RMHC and thought, why don’t I go ahead and meet the lady who runs this remarkable place.`
Moreau met with Ross the day after Christmas and immediately felt like he’d hit a `slam dunk.`
`The way she conducts her life and business and interactions with people was essentially along the same philosophy of what I was beginning to implement in my dental practice and life. It’s much bigger than helping to raise money for the house; it’s my small way of hopefully telling a story in a way that people will check [RMHC] out,` said Moreau, who defines his co-chair duties as `coordinator of personalities.`
The fashion show committee met monthly at the Smile Sanctuary on Caroline Street, and while its been used to champion the event since its inception, Ross said this year’s group had a distinctly different feel.
`The committee was made up of past guests from the Saratoga area that used RMHC. When you looked around the room, one parent had lost a child to cancer but said she wanted to give back. Another’s son had been born one pound, spent five months in the hospital and said she’d always wanted to give back to the house also,` said Ross. `It was really quite special this year because when people were out there getting donations, they could say ‘I know what that place means because it was a part of our life for the good and bad.’`
That good and bad that families come to associate with `the house that love built` is what Ross said keeps her going.
`What keeps me going is the miracles because we have more good things happening in the lives of childrens’ health than we do losses,` said Ross. `Also, my faith. I feel like God gives me the strength to live here and be part of their lives and share good times and sorrow. There’s always sunshine and shadows.`
The community’s willingness and eagerness to help still strikes Ross, even after almost 30 decades.
`The community has been extremely generous with outporing of love. We have over 300 volunteers between the family room at the hospital and the house. You feel the love all the time, whether it be the dinner cooked each night, a volunteer answering the phone and registering guests, the donated milk and Coca Cola getting dropped off each week or someone fixing the plumbing for free,` said Ross.
There are only a handful of tickets left for the RMHC Fashion Show. Full ticket information is on the Web site at www.saratogafashionshow.com. Individual tickets are $150 and there are prices for honorary committee member, honorary couple and various sized tables.
“
