Downtown Frederick flooded with 300 Holly Golightly look-alikes
They ate finger foods, not breakfast, and the store was Colonial Jewelers, not Tiffany & Co., but more than 300 Holly Golightly look-alikes gathered at the downtown Frederick shop on Wednesday night to have some fun while fundraising.
For the second year in a row, Colonial Jewelers and the Weinberg Center for the Arts co-hosted a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" themed event to raise money for the Hurwitz Breast Cancer Fund at Frederick Memorial Hospital.
Patty Hurwitz, the co-owner of the jewelry store in downtown Frederick and a breast cancer survivor, started the fund with her husband after she was diagnosed several years ago. It has raised about $750,000, which has gone toward purchasing cancer treatment equipment for the hospital.
When Frederick resident Paula Jagemann approached the store with the concept, Hurwitz thought it would be a fun, popular event for Frederick-area women. Jagemann, who was dressed up on Wednesday as well, said she got the idea for the theme from a bridal shower she attended several years ago. Jagemann is also the founder and CEO of Someone With, a Frederick-based company that aims to help women who have breast cancer deal with their disease. This year, Someone With co-sponsored the event along with Colonial Jewelers and the Weinberg Center.
About 340 tickets, compared with 278 last year, were sold for the event. "We did a little more on social media this year,"?Jagemann said. She also credits old-fashioned word of mouth for the increased ticket sales.
The event included a cocktail hour at Colonial Jewelers, a red carpet walk to the Weinberg Center located just down the street and a showing of the movie at the historic theater.
Admission for first-time attendees was $65 and came with a Holly Golightly "kit," complete with a cigarette holder, long black gloves, a tiara, a necklace, earrings and sunglasses. Participants were only asked to provide their own black dress. A $95 VIP ticket also included a Holly Golightly hair and make-up session by one of several participating salons downtown, Jagemann said. For women who also went to the event in 2010 and already had a kit, regular tickets were $35 and VIP tickets were $65.
Hurwitz said the event raised about $12,000.
"It sounded like a good girl's night out for a good cause," said Walkersville resident Teresa Conto on Wednesday evening. "And I love the movie."
Conto attended with two friends, Heidi Horine and Amy Sievers, both of Frederick. "Actually I've never seen the movie but it was a chance to dress up and be girly for the evening," Horine said.
"I think it's kind of cool that we get to see it in an old historic theater. It's not a bad way to see if for the first time," Sievers added.
Sievers said she liked that the money she spent on her kit also went toward a good cause.

