Owner of the Brio Boutique, Toni Montanaro likes the way the numbers coincide Brio's 10th Anniversary = $10,000!  In October of 2019 Brio Boutique of Cochrane held it's first annual Fashion House Fashion Show to raise funds for the Big Hill Haven Women's Shelter. One hundred percent of the proceeds raised went to the shelter and Wednesday, February 12, Brio presented a cheque for $10,780 to Big Hill Haven.  

Montanaro says, "We are pretty excited and so humbled and so thankful with this community coming together as a collective to raise that amount of money for such an important cause. I am a mom with young kids and so it really resonated for me. The trigger was having to leave a community that I love and adore so I saw the importance of that right away. I'm just so happy to be supporting the services that Big Hill Haven is already doing like escape plans and court support while we are building towards the shelter solution here in our community." 

Ana Botelho Clark and Tara McFadden were at Brio Boutique to accept the donation on behalf of Big Hill Haven. McFadden says, "It is absolutely amazing to continue to get the support from the community and Brio Boutique stepping forward last year and raising over $10,000 for our cause. It's absolutely amazing and what I like about this it's not only our community supporting local businesses but our businesses supporting local causes."

The Big Hill Haven was founded in 2016 in order to address the lack of safe shelter and resources for women and families fleeing domestic violence in Cochrane and area. Big Hill Haven is currently working on collecting capital to get and actual brick and mortar shelter built while at the same time, providing the support services that are needed right now. Over the past 18 months Big Hill Haven has assisted more that 150 women and children living with domestic violence. 

The donation from Brio Boutique will truly help Big Hill Haven reach their goals. The 2nd Annual Fashion House Fashion Show is already planned and it is set to go Thursday October 8th and Montanaro says,"In preparation for that, we are excited to make it even bigger and better."

If you or someone you know is in need of assistance from Big Hill Haven Women's Shelter or to find out how you can help click here