Thursday at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne, the runway belongs to local business owners and school leaders. The shopping and the raffle are the point: both benefit children in cancer treatment.
CBS Miami reported Wednesday that the Sunshine Kids fundraiser is set for Nov. 12 and will include a fashion show, shopping and a raffle for the Sunshine Kids Foundation. As of that report, tickets were still available through the Key Biscayne Community Foundation website.
Neighbors on the runway
The casting is deliberately local. CBS Miami said the show will feature hardworking women from the community, including local business owners and school leaders, with pieces from 30 brands available to shop on the spot.
Guests also get a look at the latest fashion trends on the runway. Organizer Vivian Galego-Mendez hopes the gathering will bring the community together for a cause that affects many families, the station reported.
Free programs, not a bill
The Sunshine Kids describes itself as a nonprofit dedicated to children with cancer, established in 1982. It says it provides programs and events, free of charge, for kids receiving cancer treatment in hospitals across North America.
CBS Miami also reported that the foundation offers free trips for young patients, financial help with families' back-to-school and college expenses, and celebrations around the country.
Galego-Mendez put the hospital footprint in one sentence: "These are kids that are in 85 hospitals nationwide that have this program, the Sunshine Kids, and four of those hospitals are here locally." The four local hospitals were not named.
Same cause, earlier calendars
Key Biscayne has staged this cause before, in different clothes. The Key Biscayne Fund listed a Sunshine Kids lunch and fashion show for Oct. 23, 2025, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., built around chic resort wear.
Islander News described an annual Night of Giving for 5 to 8 p.m. on Feb. 11 at the same Ritz-Carlton, with models showing clothing, jewelry and designs for shoppers. The listing did not attach a year. In that coverage, Galego-Mendez said the previous year's Fund events raised roughly $90,000. That figure is hers, about earlier events, not a target or a tally for Thursday.
A 2023 Key Biscayne Fund listing put a gala for the foundation on Nov. 10, from 7 p.m. to midnight, at Crandon Park Golf Course: dining, dancing and live entertainment.
Thursday's version is the shopping-and-raffle edition. Anyone still looking for a seat was pointed, as of Wednesday's CBS Miami report, to the Key Biscayne Community Foundation website.
