6 to model in Grace Centers of Hope fashion show fundraiser

A makeover with hair and makeup stylists in Royal Oak was the latest stop for a half dozen women making the passage back from addiction and other challenges in their new lives.

The women are among many others who are in a long-term recovery program at Grace Centers of Hope, a nonprofit headquartered in Pontiac.

They will join professional models on the runway at the Women Helping Women Luncheon and Fashion Show on April 23, an annual fundraiser for Grace Centers of Hope.

Inside the Hart & Harlow Salon, 508 E. Fourth Street, on Monday  some of the women talked over the sound of hairdryers about the past and their emerging futures of sobriety.

Anna Updegrove, 25, of West Bloomfield Township had overdosed on heroin eight times in recent years.

After more than a dozen stays in rehab, she credits the extensive program at GCH with helping her. Updegrove has been sober for about eight months, something she never thought possible before.

“Today I feel good,” she said, “I feel renewed and I’m close to getting my daughter back.”

Updegrove enjoyed the makeover, which is a warm-up for the day of the fashion show. She and the other five women will hit the runway draped in designer clothes.

“It makes me nervous,” Updegrove said, smiling. “But it will be fun.”

Lisa Monohon, 60, formerly of Roseville, was celebrating her fourth month of sobriety Monday.

A native of Peoria, Ill., she started drinking 24 years ago after her husband died. As her addiction blossomed and endured, her relations with her children and other relatives withered.

Monohon sought treatment at Grace Centers for Hope when she realized she wanted to live.

“They treat the ladies very well,” she said of GCH. “I love the makeover. We all appreciate it … in our addiction we feel bad about ourselves.”

With sobriety and steady living, Monohon looks forward to mending relationships with her children and grandchildren, and plans to again work in the law enforcement field.

Pam Clark, women’s program director at GCH, was with the women Monday at the salon. Women from the program have been taking part in the makeovers and fundraisers for 24 years.

The women live at the center for the first year and receive two years of aftercare.

A before picture of the six women who will participate in Grace Centers of Hope’s annual Women Helping Women fashion show. From left are Anna Updegrove, Steffany Russell, Lisa, Shalar Vaughn, Lisa Monohon and Ashleigh Baumgardner.(Marx Layne photo)

“Most of them have used drugs or alcohol to anesthetize the pain of their lives,” Clark said.

GCH owns 58 houses where the women, and sometimes their children, live for two years after their first year of sobriety.

While living at the houses, the women have to work, pay rent and stay sober.

For most of the women, opioid drugs are their main addiction, Clark said.

Pictured after their makeovers are, from left, Anna Updegrove, Steffany Russell, Lisa Monohon, Shalar Vaughn, Latosha Mack, and Ashleigh Baumgardner. (Marx Layne photo)

Nearly all street drugs, from heroin to cocaine, meth, and sometimes illegally sold marijuana are now often laced with fentanyl without the user knowing it, causing overdose deaths to skyrocket in recent years.

“Fentanyl is a killer,” Clark said. “It is an evil element.”

Still, those who take part in the program can recover and rebuild their lives.

“We see miracles every day,” Clark said.

Amy Craig, owner of Hart & Harlow, got involved in doing the makeovers for the Grace Centers of Hope women several years ago when she worked at a salon in Birmingham.

“I enjoyed the women I met,” Craig said, “and I’ve enjoyed helping to fill up their cup a little bit.”