There Are Models And Role Models
Our next model gliding down the runway sports a blue and ecru floral blouse, ivory mock turtleneck and coordinated long skirt of seafoam green.
It’s stylish summer wear with an added benefit. It completely hides the most important part of 17-year-old Shanna Burdick’s ensemble:
Her back brace.
In fact, all the gorgeous models here have something to hide, which is exactly the point.
This is the “Scoliosis Fashion Show,” the latest wonder being served up at Spokane’s Shriners Hospital for Children.
House of miracles is more like it.
The Shriners Hospital, 911 West Fifth, is one of this city’s sparkling jewels.
Every year, the medical staff inside this airy, architecturally brilliant building quietly takes care of 6,000 kids. The health problems range from scoliosis - a genetic disorder that causes abnormally curved spines - to severe deformities and injuries requiring expensive, high-tech surgery.
Total cost to patients: zero.
Total cost to taxpayers: zero.
While President Clinton and Colin Powell hold summits trying to make volunteerism trendy, Shriners Hospital has been a loving role model for 75 years.
At 22 hospitals throughout the nation, the Shrine spends $1.5 million a day giving kids free, no-strings-attached health care.
No one is ever turned away. The enormous bill is covered through careful management of a huge endowment, new donations and recruiting as many volunteers as can be mustered.
“This is said to be the finest example of philanthropy in the world,” says Chuck Young, the hospital’s administrator.
I believe it.
The incredible goodwill extends to even the cafeteria. On Friday I dined on tasty roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, clam chowder, butterscotch pudding and a soft drink.
Total cost to Doug: $3.84.
Menu prices haven’t been this depressed since the Eisenhower administration.
“We like to keep the costs down,” adds Young. “Some of the families of our patients are pretty needy.”
The unusual fashion show is just another illustration of this amazing hospital. Knowing how emotionally crippling scoliosis is to its young victims, the hospital’s staff gave them their own fashion show.
Scoliosis is not the end of the world, but it’s plenty nasty.
It strikes girls harder than boys. During growth spurts it is extremely painful. Taking part in a fashion show “helps them see that they can wear nice clothes and look great,” says social worker Linda Devlin.
The Emporium department store furnished the wardrobe. Cosmetics were supplied by Mary Kay distributors. A modeling coach from PJ & Company taught the 10 girls and lone boy how to strut the catwalk like pros.
“I think it’s snappy,” says Kellogg’s Alicia Williams, 12, of her first modeling gig.
It was. But the snappiest thing I saw during my trip to the Shriners Hospital sat in a wheelchair in a fourth-floor room.
Zackery Finch, 19, told me he grew up in Forsyth, Mont., being constantly teased about his grossly bowed legs.
About a month ago, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Paul Caskey performed a complicated $30,000 procedure to change Zackery’s life.
Bones were cut. Custom-made $10,000 metal halos were installed around Zackery’s legs with a dozen long screws penetrating deep into each limb.
Total cost to Zackery: zip.
Slowly, the severed bones will grow together and lengthen, this time straight and true.
So what’s the first thing you’re going to do with your new legs? Zackery looked up from his wheelchair as if he’d just heard the dumbest question in the world.
“Show ‘em off,” he says.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo