Leah McCormick, recipient of the 2013 Bruce Citizen of the Year Award, told the Bruce Chamber Monday there is no place she would rather be than here in Calhoun County.
McCormick, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, said the “community and town rallied around” her family during that time.
“So many people reached out to us,” an emotional McCormick said. “I wanted to pay that support forward.”
Leah McCormick
She established “Fabric of Hope” while she completed her chemotherapy treatments. The organization provides hats for those undergoing chemo treatments.
“It’s really hard to find cute hats,” she said.
So with her mother-in-law Virginia Rae McCormick as seamstress, they designed their own and then began making them for others.
“We had such an incredible response when we got started,” McCormick said. “People from all over the country were donating material.”
Two years later, they continue to provide hats for patients at hospitals throughout the region including St. Jude and Le Bonheur in Memphis.
Now the organization will be a featured part of the new business “Patchwork” McCormick plans to put in on South Newberger across the street from Bowles’ Honda in the former location of Brett King’s photography studio.
The store’s name defines it as a place “where all the pieces come together.”
“We want to do more than just give people hats,” McCormick said.
Fabric of Hope will constitute the back portion of the store, including a work area with sewing machines for producing more hats.
The front part of the store will be a retail shop with American-made and Mississippi-made products and artwork from local artists.
“I want the store to celebrate Mississippi,” McCormick said.
She hopes the store will be successful enough to employ a few people while also sustaining “Fabric of Hope.”
“We’re really excited about it and this is so not about me,” McCormick said. “It takes a lot of people to pull this off.”
In chamber news, President Becky Wright voiced her thanks to all who attended and supported the recent chamber banquet.
“We had a great turnout and a wonderful program,” Wright said.
She said work has already begun on Throwback Thursdays and they are shooting for May to begin the weekly farmers’ market on the square. Wright said they already had vendors and musicians signing up.
She announced there will be a Spring Fling and Community Easter Egg Hunt April 19 on the square. Details of the event will be released as it draws closer.
Chamber secretary Carol Shoemaker said the Sawmill Festival Committee has begun meeting every month in preparation for the July 10-11 festival.
It was announced Money Connection would be the next Business of the Month honoree.
Chuck Howell, of PEPA, told the chamber all of Northern Calhoun County had been switched over to the new substation. He said TVA will be making some repairs to many of their lines during this period, which wouldn’t have been possible without the new substation.