Amy Paulishak has segued from banking to philanthropy to—bridal gowns! As vice president of business development for Brides Against Breast Cancer, a division of Center for Building Hope (formerly the Cancer Support Community), Paulishak runs the organization’s newly acquired Nationwide Tour of Gowns bridal shows and its retail store and warehouse in Lakewood Ranch. 

With more than 50 trunk shows scheduled for 2012, Paulishak presides over a network of thousands of volunteers across the country, the Lakewood Ranch boutique’s sales staff and drivers of the Tour of Gowns truck (which hauls at least 1,000 mint-condition donated gowns to each event).

Brides Against Breast Cancer

6279 Lake Osprey Drive, Sarasota

(941) 225-7800

Behind the Gowns

Can’t live without: “People. I’m a people person, and I’ll come in contact with 30,000 brides and volunteers this year through Brides Against Breast Cancer traveling shows and our store. I travel 75 percent of the time and I’m single. So of course I’m hoping to find the perfect man while traveling around the country. I don’t know that that’s going to happen, but I do meet thousands of people.”

What would your dream wedding dress be? “We have more than 1,500 dresses from the top bridal designers. I’d go with our most popular style, the mermaid silhouette. I’m more modest in my everyday attire, but every woman wants to show off those curves on her wedding day.”

Tell us about the deals. “We have gowns starting at $99. Our inventory includes new gowns donated by stores and designers, and previously worn gowns donated by brides. Right now we have couture gowns by Lazaro [was $4,500, now $2,000], from Kleinfeld Boutique [$16,000, now $2,000], a Maggie Sottero [was $1,340, now $700] and a never-worn Jim Hjelm [$3,700, now $2,000].”