MOBILE, Ala. — The Providence Foundation’s inaugural Home & Garden Show raised more than $170,000 in net proceeds to help launch a new ECMO program at USA Health Providence Hospital — an effort organizers say is already changing lives across the Gulf Coast. As the foundation celebrates the event’s impact, it is also issuing a final call for 2027 dealer applications and has announced sponsorship opportunities for next year’s show.
The newly renamed Antiques & Garden Show of the Gulf Coast will be held March 4–7, 2027, at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.
An event with a mission
Held in March 2026, the inaugural four-day event featured more than 40 national and international antique dealers and welcomed attendees from more than 18 states. It offered immersive landscape displays, expert-led design lectures and curated shopping experiences, exceeding expectations both as a Gulf Coast destination and as a fundraiser.
The show’s reach beyond state lines is a meaningful marker for Mobile, which has long sought events that draw overnight visitors downtown. Attendees from more than 18 states fill hotels, restaurants and shops along the convention center district and beyond, and the out-of-town draw gives the show a footprint closer to a regional destination event than a single-hospital charity function.
The more than $170,000 in net proceeds helped establish the ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) program at USA Health Providence Hospital, expanding access to advanced, life-saving cardiac and respiratory support for critically ill patients throughout the region.
What ECMO does, and why it matters here
ECMO — Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation — is among the most advanced forms of life support available in medicine. In essence, the technology takes over for the heart or lungs, or both: blood is drawn from the patient’s body, passed through an external membrane that adds oxygen and removes carbon dioxide, and returned to the circulation, giving a failing organ the time it needs to rest and recover. It is deployed in the most dire circumstances — severe respiratory failure, overwhelming pneumonia, cardiac crisis — when conventional ventilators and medications are not enough.
Because the therapy requires specialized equipment, a specially trained team of surgeons, perfusionists and critical care nurses, and round-the-clock monitoring, ECMO programs are expensive to establish and are traditionally concentrated at large academic medical centers. Patients in regions without a program have historically faced long transports to reach one — transport that adds risk for patients whose conditions are already precarious. A program in Mobile means critically ill patients from across the Gulf Coast can receive the therapy close to their families, their physicians and their communities.
A life saved close to home
Just weeks after the program opened, its impact became personal for one local family. Thirty-three-year-old Earl Drinkard Jr. was rushed to Providence in severe respiratory failure after what began as a seemingly minor cold quickly escalated into a life-threatening illness. He became one of the first patients to receive ECMO care through the new program.
After spending 24 days in intensive care battling severe pneumonia and strep B, Drinkard walked out of the hospital surrounded by cheering caregivers and reunited with his wife and children.
“This is the reason we wanted to bring ECMO to Mobile, and it demonstrates the value to our community,” said Will Ricks, M.D., cardiovascular surgeon and director of the USA Health ECMO program. “It was very moving to see a patient who had been so sick literally walk out of the hospital. It was a reminder of why we practice as physicians — to help people overcome sickness and get back to life with their families.”
For Drinkard’s wife, Victoria, the timing was extraordinary. “Mobile has needed this for a very, very long time, and we are so honored to be a part of something that is going to have such a huge impact on our city,” she said. “I can’t wait to see all of the lives that get saved now that we have access to such an amazing program right at home.”
His case illustrates the speed the therapy demands. What began as ordinary cold symptoms escalated into severe respiratory failure in a young father — the kind of sudden deterioration that leaves no room for a planned transfer across state lines. The program being ready when he arrived, weeks after opening, is precisely the scenario its founders envisioned when they set out to raise the money to build it.
Stories like Drinkard’s also give the foundation a concrete answer to a question every fundraiser eventually faces: what, exactly, did the money accomplish? Rather than a new wing or a piece of equipment that fades into the background of a hospital, the show’s proceeds produced a program — and within weeks, a walking, talking demonstration of what that program means to a Mobile family.
Looking ahead to 2027
Building on that momentum, the Providence Foundation has renamed the event the Antiques & Garden Show of the Gulf Coast for 2027, reflecting the central role antiques play in the show experience.
“The inaugural show demonstrated what can happen when a community comes together around a meaningful mission,” said Janée Lambert Bonner, honorary chair of the Antiques & Garden Show of the Gulf Coast. “Not only did attendees and dealers create an exceptional event, but together they made a lasting investment in the future of healthcare on the Gulf Coast. Seeing the ECMO program already changing lives is a powerful reminder that every ticket purchased, every dealer who participated and every sponsor who supported the show helped make stories like Earl’s possible.”
The rename also signals the foundation’s ambition to position the show among the Southeast’s established antiques and design events. Cities across the region have built reputations — and annual visitor seasons — around celebrated antique and garden shows, and Mobile’s convention center, waterfront setting and downtown restaurant scene give it the infrastructure to compete for that audience.
The 2027 show will again bring nationally recognized antique dealers, designers, artisans and lifestyle experts together for four days of shopping, education and inspiration. Guests can once again enjoy one-of-a-kind antiques, fine jewelry, luxury rugs and curated home furnishings; lectures from acclaimed designers and industry experts; garden displays and outdoor living inspiration; and signature events including the Preview Party, Bourbon Tasting and Designer Lecture Series. The 2026 show featured nationally acclaimed designers Paloma Contreras, Barry Dixon and Christopher Spitzmiller, and the foundation says it will soon announce speakers for 2027.
The signature events are a significant part of the show’s fundraising formula. Preview parties and themed tastings command premium ticket prices, and they anchor the show’s social calendar, drawing sponsors and patrons who might not attend a general admission day but will commit early to a marquee evening. The Designer Lecture Series brings the national design world to Mobile, adding an educational draw that distinguishes the show from a straight retail marketplace.
The 2026 speaker lineup gave a sense of the caliber the foundation is chasing. Paloma Contreras, Barry Dixon and Christopher Spitzmiller are names with national followings in interior design and the decorative arts, and their lectures drew design-minded attendees who might otherwise travel to shows in Atlanta, New Orleans or Charleston. The promise of an equally strong 2027 roster is central to the foundation’s plan to grow attendance in year two.
How to take part
Businesses and community leaders can now secure sponsorships online, with a variety of customizable tiers available. Dealer applications for the 2027 event will close soon, and antique dealers, artisans and design-focused exhibitors are invited to apply. General admission tickets will go on sale in early 2027.
For the foundation, the spring window matters: dealers book their show calendars many months in advance, and locking in a strong roster of exhibitors early builds the confidence that attracts others. Sponsorships, meanwhile, fund the production side of the show — the landscape installations, lecture stages and special events that turn the convention center floor into an experience rather than a row of booths — while helping ensure that ticket revenue can flow toward the hospital mission.
The connection between the show floor and the ICU is now the organizing story of the event. Organizers have made the ECMO program’s early results a centerpiece of their pitch to 2027 sponsors and dealers, and the argument is an easy one to make: an attendee’s admission ticket, a dealer’s booth fee and a sponsor’s contribution combined to build a program that saved a Mobile father’s life within weeks of opening.
A new tradition for Mobile
Few inaugural charity events announce their staying power so decisively. The show exceeded its own expectations in year one, delivered a hospital program that has already produced a signature save, and enters its second year with a sharper identity and a national profile to build on. If the 2027 edition matches the momentum, the Antiques & Garden Show of the Gulf Coast is positioned to become an annual fixture on Mobile’s spring calendar — and an ongoing source of support for the specialized care that Gulf Coast patients once had to leave home to find.
For now, the foundation’s attention turns to logistics: closing out the dealer list, selling sponsorships and preparing the speaker announcements that will shape next spring’s program. Local antique lovers, design enthusiasts and gardeners, meanwhile, have a date to circle: March 4–7, 2027, at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center, when the show returns with a mission that now has a face and a story behind it.