Today at 4:04 a.m.
by Brandon Smith
The Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund Ouachita Region will host its 14th annual Single Parent Style Show fundraiser on Thursday at The Vapors.
The style show will feature both male and female models from the area, who will wear collections from local businesses such as Belk, Chantilly Boutique, Chicos, Retro Fit, Accessory Gallery, and Soma.
This is the second year the event will be held at The Vapors, 315 Park Ave. It will feature a lunch, silent auction, and cash wine bar. The doors and silent auction will open at 10:45 a.m. and seating will begin at 11:30 a.m. Lunch, which begins at 12:10 p.m., will feature testimonials and the style show, with closing remarks at 12:45 p.m.
ASPSF Executive Director Ruthanne Hill recently announced that the net profit from the show will be doubled by the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation.
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Proceeds from the event’s Glitz & Glam Table will fund a special scholarship honoring the late Garland County Circuit Court Judge Vicki Shaw Cook. Cook, who died on Dec. 18, 2020, was instrumental in the work of the organization. A longtime volunteer and mentor on behalf of the ASPSF for Garland County, she took part in interviewing students as well as planning and hosting scholarship celebrations through her fundraising efforts.
Local ASPSF volunteers Sally Pierce and Helen Bumpas noted one of her favorite contributions to the annual luncheon was through donating collectibles, art and sculptures, artisan jewelry, and scarves and bags from her own collection. The group continues her tradition each year through the Glitz & Glam Table.
“Personally, I know of one of our scholarship recipients that was in Judge Cook’s court many times,” Pierce said. “But she has turned her life around and she is now working and trying to better herself. Because when she betters herself, it betters her children. And her children are doing excellent in the school system right now. That’s dear to my heart.”
Pierce spent lots of time in Cook’s court as an administrator for the students that would come.
“That’s one of the things that Vicki Cook started when she was in our program, was she started the mentoring program aspect of it,” Bumpas said. “She, just as a volunteer, would go out and mentor a specific couple of students that were having a little trouble or little hard time. And I know that she probably gave some of her donations to help out with certain people, too, and certain recipients.”
For this spring semester, 31 recipients were awarded scholarships, totaling $43,200 for the Ouachita Region. Within the region, $8,800 went to six scholars in Clark County, $26,000 went to 19 scholars in Garland County, $3,200 went to two scholars in Hot Spring County, $3,600 went to three scholars in Howard County, and $1,600 went to one scholar in Pike County.
Full-time students are awarded $1,600 scholarships and part-time students receive around $500-$600. The checks are payable to the students and they can use the money however they need.
“Because these scholars are working, they have a job, and of course, they have the children,” Pierce said. “And they’re trying to better themselves by going to college. So this money that they receive can go for food, day care, tires on your car … You come out, you have a flat tire, or whatever, that’s what our money is for. So they can use it however they choose to.
“But we have a process that we go through to make sure these people are worthy of this scholarship. That they will use it properly, and that they are trying to better themselves and their children.”
Tickets are $45 per person and may be purchased at:
https://bit.ly/4aI8fce
Checks are payable to ASPSF and donations are welcome. For more information, or to apply for a scholarship, visit:
https://www.aspsf.org/
“We’re looking forward to having a good group and the style show is wonderful,” Pierce said. “I mean, you’ll see some of your people that you know in the community. We don’t bring them in from Dallas or Chicago or New York, they are regular people here in town and they will be modeling the clothes.”
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