{"id":36095,"date":"2025-04-10T19:14:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T23:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36095"},"modified":"2025-04-17T18:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T22:32:20","slug":"fashion-show-by-omars-will-shine-a-light-on-mens-health-and-local-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/fashion-show-by-omars-will-shine-a-light-on-mens-health-and-local-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Fashion show by Omars will shine a light on Men\u2019s Health and local hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The global pandemic got in the way of Omars Shoes fully celebrating its 50th<\/sup> anniversary in the community, but they\u2019re determined to make a splash this year as they celebrate their 55th<\/sup> with a special fashion show shining a light on Southlake Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the theme of the evening \u2013 Men\u2019s Health \u2013 has special resonance for the Khamissa family, which has operated the store over three generations \u2013 as co-owner Raz continues his battle with prostate cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur 50th<\/sup> anniversary was when COVID was happening and we couldn\u2019t get to celebrate, so I wanted to do something for our 55th<\/sup> year \u2013 but instead of doing the same old typical things, we wanted to do something for our community,\u201d says store co-owner Mae Khamissa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing something to benefit the local hospital was a choice early on, and planning began in earnest this past October for an event highlighting community mental health care. By the holidays, however, the family was rocked with Raz\u2019s own diagnosis and wife Mae suggested training the spotlight on Men\u2019s Health, a topic some guys find hard to discuss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRaz was still processing it and said, \u2018No, I don\u2019t think so,\u2019 so we left it,\u201d Mae explains, adding a family trip to South Africa to celebrate a wedding was a tonic in helping him get his thoughts in order. \u201cHe realized how many men don\u2019t actually get checked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you talk to more people, there are so many who don\u2019t get checked,\u201d continues Raz. \u201cIf awareness is the best thing that comes out of it, that\u2019s great. The more people know about it, the more people get checked and look after themselves \u2013 guys have a tendency to hold things in and not talk about it and say anything \u2013 so that is the good that is going to come from this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omars Fashion Thru the Ages will take place the evening of May 20 at the Royal Venetian Mansion on Industrial Parkway South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will feature an array of men\u2019s fashions that can be found at Omars, which will be modelled by several \u201clocal celebrities\u201d walking the runway, including Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas and King Mayor Steve Pellegrini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live music and dancing will be provided by Soul Benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole idea is let\u2019s make this a fun night, all for a good cause,\u201d says Raz. \u201c55 years in Aurora is a huge accomplishment. You try to keep low key and you don\u2019t try to say too much, but it is pretty amazing and the fact that we\u2019re a third-generation business, we\u2019re very proud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omars was founded by the eponymous Omar Khamissa, whose son and daughter-in-law remain co-owners and operators, and in recent years have been joined in the family business by their own daughter, Saarah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe realize why we\u2019ve been around for 55 years is because of the support we have had from this community,\u201d says Saarah. \u201cIt has been incredible as a small business still going strong after such a long time. With so much competition, it\u2019s a huge testament to the people around us, that have supported us, and we have seen that in doing this event \u2013 the incredible community has really come together to support this cause, support the event and support us for being around for so long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur ticket sales so far have been great and it\u2019s just because people want to support us and the want to support a great cause. It\u2019s a huge testament to the community we\u2019re living in and we\u2019re really proud that people there are surrounding us. It works both ways \u2013 we\u2019ve tried to provide the best service we can for our community and, in turn, they have come to us to support us. If you do what you can do for the people that are around you, they will give the same back. That\u2019s why I think we have lasted this long.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Mae: \u201cI really feel like the community is putting a blanket around us and really feeling that comfort from our community. We have always been proud, but we\u2019re more so proud of this wonderful town and its people. We feel like one big family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the upcoming Omars Fashion Thru the Ages event, including tickets, visit www.eventbrite.ca\/e\/omars-fashion-thru-the-ages-tickets-1288255399579.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The global pandemic got in the way of Omars Shoes fully celebrating its 50th anniversary in the community, but they\u2019re determined to make a splash this year as they celebrate their 55th with a special fashion show shining a light on Southlake Health. But the theme of the evening \u2013 Men\u2019s Health \u2013 has special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-10-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9ob","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 13:29:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36098,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36095\/revisions\/36098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}