Palm Aire fashion show supports charity, education

When Palm Aire Women’s Club member Kim Lege was named co-chair of the 39th annual Palm Aire Women’s Club Fashion Show in September, she may not have known how hard she’d have to work. However, she knew immediately she wanted her 80-year-old mother, Lula Michael, to be part of the fun.

While Kim Lege was attending meetings Feb. 9 in preparation for the fashion show, her husband, John Lege, drove to Gainesville to pick up Michael. Kim Lege went to Dillard’s and bought her mother a sparkly black dress.

The pair sat side by side at a front table as models paraded around the room Feb. 15 at the Palm Aire Golf and Country Club for the fashion show, this year themed ““Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend.  

About 220 women enjoyed lunch, raffles and a fashion show featuring designs from Dillard’s.

“It’s for such a worthy cause,” Kim Lege said, noting proceeds provide financial donations to charities and scholarships to local students. “All the money we raise goes back into the community. It’s been a very fun process.”

Special guests included Bernadette DiPino, the chief of police of the Sarasota Police Department, who volunteered as a model, as well as Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County Executive Director Jim Shirley, who emceed the event.