When incoming Region 2 Director Sharon Pearce, CRNA, MSN, walks to the dais at the Annual Banquet on Wednesday night, she will be wearing a hand-made dress loaned to her for the occasion by her “Anesthesia Mom,” Barbara Bunn, CRNA.
Incoming Region 2 Director Sharon Pearce, CRNA, MSN, will be wearing a memento from a cherished mentor and friend at the Annual Banquet on Wednesday night. Photo courtesy of Wheeler Commercial Photography.
The blue and white dress, pictured here, will be making its second appearance at an AANA Annual Meeting. Barbara Bunn’s mother made the dress for her from a Vogue pattern to wear at the 1972 AANA Annual Meeting in Chicago, during her term as president of North Carolina Association of Nurse Anesthetists (NCANA).
Sharon notes that Barbara, her mentor since she became a nurse anesthetist, served as NCANA president from 1971 to 1972—exactly 30 years from her own term as NCANA president. Another coincidence: Barbara began giving anesthesia in 1963, the year Sharon was born. The two CRNAs have remained close since “Miss Bunn took me under her wing,” at Sharon’s first job at Lexington Memorial Hospital, in Lexington, N.C. Sharon was thrilled when, after hearing about her election win, Barbara offered to loan her the dress to wear at the start of her term as Region 2 Director.