Thank you

Traverse City, MI — May 16, 2026— A big thank you to the TC Paw Cat rescue team of volunteers and our extended family of supporters for going above and beyond for the cats and kittens of NW Michigan.  We are pleased to share that this year’s Cat Lady Fashion Show was a purr-fect success, thanks to you, our incredible community! The Cat Lady Fashion Show was held at the Dennos Museum Center and Milliken Auditorium, drawing an enthusiastic crowd of over 350 animal loving guests and volunteers; all coming together in support of TC Paw Cat Rescue. 

Well, we did it again. We produced and hosted a fun and humorous fashion show pageant unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. The Cat Lady Fashion Show had it all: people dressed as cats, people not dressed like cats, people acting like cats, cat loving celebrities, good looking men, spicy women, live entertainment, a cash bar, scrumptious munchies, a photo booth, an epic silent auction, and surprises. Lots of surprises! Feline chaos was never this much fun.

 This year we added live musicians, including Heather Kingham and the TC Sings Community Chorus, live Entertainment by Chris Sterr, and his band, the Pocket, on the big stage. Our pre-show reception guests were entertained by the one and only Levi Britton (of Stolen Silver). Spinning tunes was our very own “What’s Up Pussycat” DJ Hartwell.

We indulged our guests in a delicious appetizer buffet and beverages served by the Milliken Auditorium. 

The extensive TC Paw Cat Rescue silent auction featured an incredible array of items, including a getaway experience to Montana, hand crafted jewelry, artwork, a private chef experience for your next home-party or back yard celebration. There were truly too many amazing items to name here — all were generously donated by community supporters.

TC Paw owes a debt of gratitude to M’Lynn Hartwell of Freshwater Events (https://freshwaternetworks.com) for conceptualizing, promoting, and producing the quirky and hilarious Cat Lady Fashion Show. This idea really came out of nowhere. It took us a few days to digest the idea that this might actually be a good thing. It turns out that it is. Who knew?  Thank you for bringing this idea before the TC Paw Cat Rescue Board of Directors for our consideration and benefit. It’s been a wonderful partnership.

The Cat Lady Fashion Show event would not be possible without our generous sponsors:

• Main Event Sponsor: Ruth Conklin Gallery
• Entertainment Sponsor: Omnivet
• First Community Bank
• SOS Learning Lab
• Old Mission Farm
• Fitzpatrick Insurance
• Pets Naturally

We are all so grateful to be part of such a talented and hardworking event production team. The collective collaboration and dedication to the TC Paw Cat Rescue mission has been inspirational and heart warming.

We are eternally grateful to our dear and wonderful Mistress of Ceremonies, Micki Durocher, who kept the show moving as smoothly as a cat stalking a mouse. Hey Micki, you’re so fine. Thank you for everything.

Our judges at the 2nd Annual Cat Lady Fashion Show were: the illustrious Bob James (yes that Bob James), singer Emily Kuschell, broadway performer and vocalist Hilary James, media personality Jack O’Malley, esteemed family law attorney and former Mayor of Traverse City Shelly Kester, and media personality and renowned sidewalk chalk artist Susan Melton.

We were blessed to have two singing judges join us this year. Emily Kuschell performed a crowd pleasing rendition of Stray Cat Strut. Hilary and Bob James performed the Traverse City premiere of a new song that will be included in a self published children’s adventure and song book project entitled, “Ms. Hilary Please.” (https://misshilaryplease.com)

In addition to live music, and singing judges, the Full Full Improv troupe lead by Dave Thomas delivered some ridiculous antics resulting in delightfully deep belly laughs had by all.

Our 2nd Annual Cat Lady Fashion Show Winners:

The panel of distinguished Judges declared Courtney Hexham performing as “DJ Paris Kitten” as their Winning Cat Lady Fashion Show model.

The People’s Choice Awards were received by: 

• The runner-up-to the runner-up was awarded to Jan Ross performing as “The Cat Lady with the Good Stuff”.
• Our runner-up was Lamont Hart performing as “Cool Cat Flint”, 
• Our audience favorite Cat Lady Fashion Show model of the evening was the dynamic and athletic Thor Grebe performing as “Kitty Katour”.

While we are still processing our income and expenses, we can tell you that the Cat Lady Fashion Show proceeds will go a long way toward assuring that the cats and kittens in the care of TC Paw Cat Rescue will be afforded all the veterinary, critical care, spay/neuter, fostering, adoption, and community education services they need and deserve. It is our goal to assure that all cats in our care will enjoy a better life and have successful adoptions.

• TC Paw was established in April of 2023.
• To date TC Paw has adopted out nearly a thousand cats and kittens.
• This is the 1st anniversary of our highly successful low-cost spay/neuter clinics in NW Michigan.

We look forward to seeing you next May for our 3rd Annual Cat Lady Fashion Show. We will be announcing details soon. 

We would like to take this moment to encourage you to sign up on our eMail list to be notified of TC Paw Cat Rescue’s upcoming events and activities. You won’t want to miss a thing. Click here: https://www.tcpaw.org/contact or email us at [email protected]

TC Paw Cat Rescue executive director – Lisa Chimner
Website: www.tcpaw.org 

Cat Lady Fashion Show Producer – M’Lynn Hartwell at Freshwater Events
Website: https://catladyfashionshow.com | https://freshwaternetworks.com