Project Runway to Come to Winchester

It started seven years ago with only a handful of women business owners from around Winchester. Now, on Wednesday, April 6, over 500 will head to the for the annual spring fundraiser for the Women Helping Women organization, a subset of the

The spring event, which is normally held at the , sold out in less than a month. Organizers – Dot Butler and Kim Miles – needed to change the venue to try and meet the demand for tickets.

“We’re amazed by how much this has grown,” said Miles who is a Financial Advisor for New York Life and also on the Chamber’s Board of Directors. “This is the hottest spring ticket in town. We’ve never sold out this fast and sold so many tickets before. We’re just so proud of what this has become.”

The theme of the event varies each year. This show, will be a fashion show highlighting the seven boutiques in town. At the end of the night, nine local designers from around Winchester will be designing an original piece from scratch. The winner will be awarded a cash prize.

“The main goal of this is to celebrate the women in business,” said the chamber’s Executive Director, Cathy Alexander. “It’s to promote people to shop locally, but it’s also a chance for women in town to get together and have fun.”

Miles, along with the help of Butler and Alexander, have put together a wide range of shows over the years. There has been a Battle of the Brands, a variety show and Winchester’s Got Talent.

But besides being a fundraiser, the event and the organization is meant to help women in business network with others in the community.

“As a female business owner, when I came back to Winchester, I wondered what the Chamber offered women in business,” said Miles, who grew up in Winchester, before moving to New York.

There had been a women’s networking group years ago, according to Alexander, but it had since died out.

“I polled women from the community to get different concepts and ideas of what we could do,” Miles said. “It’s just morphed over the years. We had 200 women show up that first year and it just continues to grow.”

But the success of the organization still surprises Miles.

“Me, Dot [Butler] and Cathy [Alexander], we’re just amazed and wonderfully surprised at how this has grown to the level it’s at,” Miles said. “It’s truly amazing.”