WOMAN IN MENDON NEW YORK HAS 900 HATS

Stacey Miller is one woman who knows the value of a hat. As a mitrologist (a collector of and authority on hats and headdresses), she lends her hats to museums and schools to teach people about different cultures. The hat lover had this to say about hats and life.

"It's a way of making a statement about who we are. Hats are really versatile teaching tools too," she said. Miller has exotic hats from her world travels.

Her hats are currently on display at The Harley School in Brighton. And until recently, several of her hats toured museums around the country for almost five years.

Miller's first hat came just after college, when she was living in Spain with family friends in the late 1970s.

A man in Madrid organized a bus trip from there to India, and along the way, "Almost everywhere you looked around, you saw people in villages wearing different hats."

Soon, everywhere she traveled, she brought back hats and stories of the people who wore them.

"My hats have grown in uniqueness," said Miller, who worked in marketing for companies such as AT&T before working with museums and teaching programs for schools and nursing homes.

Eventually she'd like to write a book on hats and maybe turn her collection from 85 countries into a museum, but for now she offers traveling exhibits and lectures and uses her hats as art in her home.

To contact Stacey go to her website: http://www.hathorizons.com