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Susan Urmy
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Friends and Fashion 2024 at Music City CenterPhotos by: Susan Urmy
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Friends and Fashion 2024 at Music City CenterPhotos by: Susan Urmy
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Friends and Fashion 2024 at Music City CenterPhotos by: Susan Urmy
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Friends and Fashion 2024 at Music City CenterPhotos by: Susan Urmy
On Tuesday, April 2, more than 750 guests gathered together at Music City Center for Friends of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt's annual Friends & Fashion event.
The event featured fashions by The Friends Shop, located inside the hospital, and Dillard’s, modeled by patient families and Monroe Carell health care heroes.
This year’s event was co-chaired by Kelli Dill, Lauren Hocker, and Lacey Keally. It was emceed by Tuwanda Coleman-Shaw, a retired NewsChannel 5 producer and reporter who is also an advisory board member for Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. More than $200,000 was raised to support Monroe Carell’s vision for the first and only pediatric inpatient rehabilitation facility in the state, as well as psychological services at Monroe Carell.
Several of the patients in this year’s show served as ambassadors for the hospital and the pediatric rehabilitation initiative. This included fifteen-year-old patient, Megan Thomas. When Megan was eight-years-old, she experienced an arteriovenous malformation rupture, a type of brain injury that reduces blood flow to the brain.
“Having an inpatient rehabilitation facility would be a dream come true for us as a family," says Megan’s mom Codosta. "I don't want other families to have to choose between getting care or not because of the burden it puts on families that are not able to go out of state. Families would be able to have the support from other family members that is desperately needed when a child needs extensive care."
The program also featured an interview where Coleman-Shaw conduced with a patient and his physical therapist to expand on the vision Monroe Carell has to develop Tennessee’s first in-patient pediatric rehabilitation unit.