Dan Shaw reports from Sharon.Trade Secrets is like a big family reunion where everyone catches up with familiar faces they haven't seen for ages—or at least since the last Trade Secrets. Hundreds came out to shop on May 19 at the 12th annual antique and rare-plant shopping extravaganza at Elaine La Roche's Lion Rock Farm in Sharon, CT, which is the most important fundraiser of the year for Women's Support Services, an organization that focuses on domestic violence intervention and prevention in northwest Connecticut and adjacent towns in New York and Massachusetts. It was family day for Hammertown's Joan Osofsky who had her granddaughters, Olive and Lillie (left), lending a hand at her booth. Celebrities like Martha Stewart and Bette Midler were spotted shopping among the hundred of early buyers, but most everyone's attention was focused on the bountiful merchandise and the glorious, sunny weather.
Volunteers Dorothy Felske and artist Karin Wexler; garden gurus Margaret Roach & Bob Hyland.
Hunter Bee's Jonathan Bee with Tony Kiser and Lisa Atkin.
Robin Norris of Campo de' Fiori in Sheffield with Made in the Berkshires co-founder Hilary Somers Deely; legendary fashion editors Polly Allen Mellen and Phyllis Posnick.
Trade Secrets co-founder Bunny Williams and Inge Heckel who's a trustee of The Mount; antiques dealer David Duncan with designer Sheila Kotur and Michael McGraw.
Alfred Portale, the founder and executive chef of New York’s Gotham Bar and Grill, with Sophie Leibowitz and interior designer Matthew Patrick Smyth.
Janice Cronk and Serevan owner Serge Madikians; Richard Lambertson & Suzanne Cassano of Privet House with Eric Johnston.
Novelists Diane Meier and Frank Delaney; artist Clifton Jaeger and his daughter Emma.
Women's Support Services counselor advocate Liz Davis and volunteer Jamie Bonello with Harney Tea's special Trade Secrets blend.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
