The Oklahoma City Chi Omega Alumnae Association is bringing its Fashion for a Passion fundraiser back to Nichols Hills next week, marking the event's 19th year of raising money for children with hearing loss across Oklahoma. The runway show and shopping night is set for October 1 at CK & Company in Nichols Hills Plaza, running from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., and it is open to the public.
According to News 9, organizers say the event has raised about $3 million over its 19-year history for Hearts for Hearing, the Oklahoma City nonprofit that teaches babies born deaf to listen and talk. Hearts for Hearing itself puts the cumulative total higher: according to Hearts for Hearing, the event has raised more than $3.5 million over the 18 years preceding this year's show. Either figure reflects nearly two decades of grassroots giving that began, per News 9, as a purposeful party organized by Chi Omegas featuring fashion shows held in a member's home before growing into the public event it is today.
Fashion for a Passion chair Weneva Edge said the event remains open to everyone, not just Chi Omega alumnae, per the same News 9 report. This year's program includes a mobile unit demonstrating Hearts for Hearing's clinical work, plus a speaker and fashion segment, and ticket holders can browse CK & Company with a 20% discount on boutique purchases through October 2, per Hearts for Hearing.
A Cochlear Implant User Takes the Stage
Among this year's speakers is an adult audiologist who was born with hearing loss and now uses a cochlear implant to listen and talk, News 9 reports. He works as a provider for people with hearing loss himself, giving attendees a firsthand account of the technology and services the fundraiser helps fund.
Hearts for Hearing director of development Sierra Verdicchio told News 9 that the organization teaches babies born deaf to listen and talk, and said Chi Omega organizers champion the nonprofit's mission. Funds from the event go toward hearing technology, audiology, and speech therapy services, and Hearts for Hearing provides those services in all 77 Oklahoma counties at no cost to families, per the same report, so that finances never stand in the way of a family choosing listening and spoken language for their child.
Serving Nearly 12,000 Kids a Year
The scale of that mission has grown substantially. Hearts for Hearing provided clinical and audiological care to 11,845 children across Oklahoma during fiscal year 2026, according to Hearts for Hearing. The nonprofit was founded in May 2003 by Joanna T. Smith, Dr. Teresa Caraway, and Dr. Stan Baker following a state task force created after Oklahoma passed a 2000 law mandating universal newborn hearing screenings, as MetroFamily Magazine reported last October. The organization was created in part because insurance providers at the time did not cover the hearing aids that infants needed, the magazine noted.
Hearing loss is the most common birth anomaly in the United States, affecting 2 to 3 out of every 1,000 newborns, which translates to roughly 150 infants born with hearing loss in Oklahoma each year, MetroFamily Magazine reported. Intensive auditory intervention during a child's first three years is considered critical for normal brain development, the magazine's reporting noted. The Oklahoma State Department of Health's Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program enforces national “1-3-6” guidelines requiring hearing screenings by 1 month of age, diagnostic evaluation by 3 months, and intervention services by 6 months.
A Campus Built to Match the Need
That growing patient load is one reason Hearts for Hearing broke ground in January 2025 on a 30,800-square-foot expansion at its Oklahoma City campus called Celebration of Sound, designed to add adult audiology services and a dedicated hearing research suite, according to Oklahoma.gov. The Oklahoma State Legislature appropriated $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds through the Oklahoma State Department of Health to help fund the campus expansion and the organization's mobile clinic services, the state's announcement said. The Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma also chipped in, awarding a $1 million grant distributed over two years in March 2025 to support the same expansion, according to Hearts for Hearing.
Hoodline previously reported on a 42-foot glowing sculpture installed at the new campus, a piece built by local fabricator Ian Brockwell that translates sound waves into a public art installation for the expanded facility. As of fiscal year 2025 tax filings, the Hearts for Hearing Foundation reported $33,958,251 in total assets and employed 219 staff members, according to a report from Instrumentl derived from digitized IRS Form 990 filings.
Tickets for Fashion for a Passion are available online and at the door, per News 9. For a fundraiser that started as an informal gathering of Chi Omega alumnae swapping outfits in a living room, next Thursday's runway show in Nichols Hills stands as a reminder of how far that original purpose has traveled.
