Children's hospital benefits with fashion fete
By JODI RALL
For Brentwood Home Page
Shopping in the greater Nashville area is getting better all the time. And on Tuesday night, the newly remodeled Dillard’s at The Mall at Green Hills hosted a special event to show off its new look and help a great cause at the same time.

A well-heeled crowd attended the Little Rock, Ark.-based department store’s “Helping Children through Fashion, Music and Fun” gala. The private event not only featured a runway fashion show of the store’s newest fall fashions, it benefitted Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Ben Utecht, a retired NFL tight end turned professional singer, served as emcee and sang a song off of his new Christmas album.

Creative Cocktails offered the evening’s refreshments and the champagne, wine and martinis were a festive touch.

A favorite moment of the night came when singer/songwriter Phil Vassar took the runway pretending he was a model wearing an animal print vest. Known for writing hits for Tim McGraw, Jo Dee Messina and Alan Jackson among others, Vassar is an amazing performer and singer himself and has had many hits of his own including, “Just Another Day in Paradise.” He put on a great show and afterward graciously greeted guests and fans.

To bring the focus home of why Dillard’s offered up such a great evening, it was announced that the company made a $10,000 donation to the hospital.

BHP will randomly select the winners of its Dillard’s giveaway as soon as it finishes merging the party list with its list of BHP winners.