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Health & Fitness

Sell-Out Crowd of 1,200 Expected for MORC Caregiver Appreciation Day and Kohl's Caregiver Fashion Show Set for May 16 at the Palazzo Grande in Shelby Twp

The MORC Caregiver Appreciation Day and MORC Kohl's Caregiver Fashion Show is full of happy, cheering people rooting on the caregivers and people with disabilities who are modeling.

Up to 1,200 caregivers from Macomb, Oakland, Wayne, St. Clair, Genesee and Lapeer counties are expected to attend what will once again be the Detroit area’s biggest caregiver appreciation day and the biggest fashion show of the year.  The 31th Annual MORC Caregiver Appreciation Day, expected to be a sell-out, will be on Thursday, May 16, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Palazzo Grande Banquet Center, 54660 Van Dyke Avenue, in Shelby Township.

 The Macomb-Oakland Regional Center (MORC) will honor caregivers who help people with developmental disabilities with the MORC Angels Awards and with 100 caregivers and people with disabilities modeling in the MORC Kohl’s Caregiver Fashion Show. Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel will speak and the Mike Leslie Band will perform. MORC is a nonprofit human services agency based in Auburn Hills, Clinton Township and Livonia.

The MORC Kohl’s Caregiver Fashion Show is not a typical fashion show.  People with disabilities and their caregivers, who model together, are selected to model based on how meaningful the experience will be for them. Tickets, at $35, are available by calling MORC at (248) 276-8109.  Sponsors and donors can call MORC at (586) 263-8757. 

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 “We have people who were locked away in institutions or who face extreme challenges with their disabilities who never dreamed of being in a show,” said Sue Gipperich, MORC supports coordination supervisor and host of the event. “Caregivers and family members who model with loved ones are thrilled to see how much it means for a person to be cheered on by a crowd of over 1,000.”

 “It is not your run-of-the-mill show and not your deadpan expressionless models!” said Maggie Lewis with Kohl’s Cares for Kids at Kohl’s in Rochester Hills, sponsor of the show for the sixth year.  “There’s more screaming, cheering, laughing and smiling than you’ll see at any event ever.”

Find out what's happening in Shelby-Uticawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kohl’s will again donate nearly $15,000 in clothes to the models, while Kohl’s staff will volunteer at the event.  Kohl’s in Rochester Hills continues to be one of the top Kohl’s stores in the nation in community service.

The MORC Angels Awards, funded by Dr. Arthur Woehrlen, a dentist in Macomb County, will honor 10 caregivers with a beautiful award, an “Angels” jacket, and a check for $250.  A new caregiver award will honor of Colleen O’Neill Brayton, one of the original organizers of the MORC Caregiver Appreciation Day, who passed away in 2012.

The MORC Caregiver Appreciation Day, at 31 years, is believed to be the longest-running and largest appreciation day in the country.  It traditionally honors the
some 8,000 caregivers employed by the MORC system of over 100 nonprofits, as
well as several thousand family caregivers, such as parents, siblings and
relatives.  Together, they support MORC’s 5,000 people with developmental disabilities. To see last year’s event on YouTube, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21f7U2UtUFg

MORC is known internationally for helping close all 12 institutions for people with developmental disabilities in Michigan and helping 54 nations develop homes in the community.

“I’m proud of our caregivers and am looking forward to showing them how much we appreciate them,” said Gerald Provencal, MORC executive director.  “They
help people with disabilities every day, with their own special way of caring
and their own unique gentleness.”

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