Thursday, March 28, 2024

'Hats Off' for Heritage Heights in holiday headgear giveaway

Senior citizens receive seasonal hat, socks, and gloves for Christmas from local store

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CHELAN - The last time “Hazel” shopped for a winter hat, Bill Clinton was the president. That was years before the 76-year old from Manson moved to Chelan’s Heritage Heights, a local  home for senior citizens. 

Hazel (not her real name to protect her privacy) was among the 25 elderly Heritage Heights residents who chose among a variety of warm, narrow-brimmed millinery for women and stocking caps for men. The hats and coordinating gloves were  donated by The Main Street Gallery fashion boutique and fine art arcade as part of a Christmas outreach program coordinated by the store’s co-owners April Marcel and Lacy Boosinger, plus several parishioners at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
First one then another, the elderly women and men slowly pushed their walkers into the crowded Heritage Heights lobby to select among new hats displayed on a low table. Smiles of delight and gasps of wonder spread across their faces as each style was tried on. 
Even though they had not shopped recently, the women knew the hat ritual that stemmed from a bygone time when all ladies and gentlemen wore fashionable hats for church and when going out. Hats, for decades, were part of everyone’s fashion habit and winter attire. 
“For me?” questioned one woman as she picked up a variegated gray hat with a jaunty side bow. Smiling with amazement she asked no one in particular, “Can I try on the black one, too?” she quizzed excitedly. 
One new male resident at Heritage Heights exclaimed “I don’t have a cap like this,” when he lifted a bright orange knit version to his balding head. “This will really keep my head warm...”
April Marcel and her daughter, Lacy Boosinger, dreamed up the holiday gesture when they discovered a big box of new hats locked in a storeroom. The fashion duo recently acquired The Main Street Gallery on Woodin Avenue in Historic Downtown Chelan and re-opened the boutique. 
“We want to demonstrate our gratitude to the community for warmly welcoming us to the local retail scene,” Boosinger gushed. “I can’t tell you how much fun this project was. Mom called Heritage Heights Executive Director, Deseria Bare, and found a time in their daily schedule where the residents would be congregating in the lobby. 
“The hat-distribution caper was hatched,” Marcel said with a smile.
Sisters, Joan Hazelton and Jane Farris, accompanied by Joan’s husband Larry, lent an air of organization and festivity to the busy fashion-accessory giveaway. 
 “Many of these residents don’t get out much, so it was a genuine and timely surprise for all of them,” explained Joan Hazelton. “What’s more, it warms your heart to make someone’s day during Christmas time, whether they are nine or 92.” 
“We Christians pattern our gift-giving much like the Wise Men did for baby Jesus two-thousand years ago.”
“The winter hat program was lots of fun,” said Farris after the distribution and when the recipients, wearing their new chapeaus sauntered off to the dining room. “It seemed to bring back fond memories for many of them,” She added. “And, they all look so stylish.”
The Main Street Gallery is located at 208 Woodin Avenue, Chelan. Telephone 509-682-9262; Email mainstreetgallerychelan@gmail.com. Open Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Sundays. Website: mainstreetgallerychelan.com
 
Courtesy LaBrue Communications
Volunteers from St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church help at “Hats Off” event in Chelan. From left: Jane Farris, Larry Hazelton, Teresa Hoback (seated), Joan Hazelton and Eileen Brown (seated). 
 
Courtesy LaBrue Communications
Twenty-five residents at Heritage Heights residence for seniors selected winter hats and gloves from the Main Street Gallery for Christmas. 
 
 

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