Kate Reeve, an Immaculata student, will host a charity fashion show at the Glebe Community Centre on Feb. 20.
While most pre-teens are out playing in the snow and planning their weekends, Kate Reeve is on the phone looking for a volunteer makeup artist, emailing designers and tacking up posters. Twelve-year-old Reeve is the main brains and organizer behind Fashion for Funds, an upcoming local fashion show to raise money for children’s hospices.
All proceeds from the show and the accompanying silent auction will go to Ottawa’s pediatric palliative care facility, Roger’s House, as well as to the hospice Canuck Place in Vancouver. Reeve says her goal is to raise $2,500 for each.
The show will feature designers Rachel Sin, Shweta Wahi, Amber Watkins, Jana Hanzel, and Rubin Kooner. Max Keeping, the former face of CTV Ottawa, will be hosting the event as MC.
Thanks to sponsors and donors, everything necessary for the show has been donated, and if any new costs arise, she’ll dip into her piggy bank, says Reeve.
A Grade 7 Immaculata High School student, Reeve began planning to put on a charity fashion show months ago, after reading a magazine article about a young girl terminally ill with lung cancer staying at Canuck Place.
“Before, I didn’t even know hospices existed, and they’re so important to those kids and their families,” says Reeve. “I wanted to do something.”
It’s not the first time Reeve has done community service. She also participated in Run for the Cure and helped raise over $1,000 for the Shepherds of Good Hope in Grades 3 and 4 by selling cookies.
Reeve’s father, Phil, says his daughter has always been persistent. “There’s been times when it’s been daunting, and we’ve thought ‘Can we manage this?’ And it’s always Kate pushing us forward.”
The book Much Ado About Anne by Heather Vogel Frederick, in which the main characters host a fashion show for charity, spurred Reeve’s idea further.
“My friend Charlotte is an aspiring designer, and originally, we thought we could do it all by ourselves – like in the book – with our own designs,” says Reeve, who knows how to sew a few things. “But it was just too much for us, so I contacted some real designers.”
Local designer Jana Hanzel agreed to volunteer her custom-made clothes and accessories for the show via email correspondence with Reeve. She had no idea the organizer was only 12.
“After many emails, we met in a Starbucks and I saw a lady with a young girl come in. I thought the lady, who turned out to be Kate’s mother was Kate initially,” she laughs. “I’ve put on fashion shows myself and it’s no easy task, so I am very impressed by her – brave girl with big dreams – and more excited about it every day.”
Reeve says her age always surprises the people she contacts about the show.
Jennifer Graves, fundraising coordinator for the Sens Foundation, which supports Roger’s House as its main charity, says they typically see children donate their birthday or bar mitzvah money. “This is the first time we’ve seen something of this level put on by someone so young for us,” she says.
Reeve says she’d really like to see a sold out, generous crowd.
“It’s going to be a fun afternoon; I’m happy I’m doing this,” she says, “and I’m probably going to want to do it again.”
The show starts at 1 p.m. on Feb. 20 at Glebe Community Centre. Tickets are available at the door and cost $20 for adults, $10 for students and children five and under get in free. For advance tickets, call 613-730-5074 or email fashionforfunds@gmail.com.