Fashionistas Fashion Club

Vital Stats

Sarah W

San Bernardino, CA

  • people helped 50
  • People Doing It165

The Problem

I recently visited a summer camp in Belize. While I was there I worked as a camp counseler with 7-12 year old Belizean children. I met many different Belizean children, teenagers, and adults. Although the people I met seem the same as the average Americans, poverty is prevealent across the country. The children I worked with were all extremely poor and this camp was the highlight of their year. Because we stayed in Machaca (located in Punta Gorda, Belize) longer then the camp lasted, we visited the town where most of the campers lived. In particular I remember one boy, he was only 7 or 8 and he was so excited for camp. He ran off the bus the second he stopped and hopped on a counseler's shoulders. Throughout the 5 days of camp, he was always hugging a counseler or sitting on their lap. When camp ended he cried while the bus was loading, he hung on to the counselers and didnt want to leave. Later that day, we went into town for lunch and we saw him. He ran up and hugged us all. after following us around for a while, he had to go home. Before he left he asked us all for money. It was then that I saw tangible effects of poverty. This boy was a begger, thats how he lived. Because I was able to see children like him firsthand, I now have a passion for these Belizean childern. I want to do whatever I can to help them, and I can't wait to visit them again next summer.

Plan of Action

I have already spent a lot of time creating a successful club, but there is much more to do in preparation of our spring fashion show. Because we haven't had our charity event yet, I don't know what kind of an impact we will make. Optimistically, we hope to raise the money to provide enough food for all the children in the childrens home in the coming year. Even though it doesnt sound like much, every month it costs at least $3000 to feed the 23 orphans.

Project Updates

May 9th marked the date of the long awaited Fashionistas Charity Fashion Show. After 2 years of planning, we were finally ready for the biggest event of my high school experience.
By the fitting on May 6th, we had gathered a huge group of people from the community that were ready and willing to participate in the fashion show. We had models from the two other high schools in Redlands, Redlands High School and Redlands East Valley High School. We had six stores that had picked numerous outfits to be featured on the catwalk. We had semi-professional models from New Entertainment Today Modeling Agency come in to wear many of these outfits. We had local shops donate many items for our oppourtinity drawing. We were ready. We spent that Wednesday evening meeting models and trying on clothes with them. We approved every outfit that would be walking down that catwalk. When my co-president and I finally had a chance to breathe, we reflected on the progress. We nearly burst into tears as we had sushi for dinner downtown at 9:00 that night.
Thursday May 7th: this was the final day of planning. We had everything arranged from the rented silverware to the make up artist. We spent the evening picking out all the jewelery that would be featured in the show and writing up descriptions for the many many outfits.
Friday was our dress rehersal. We began setting up afterschool about 1. We built the catwalk. We set up curtains. We made our own stage skirting. All the models arrived at 3:30. Slowly but surely we ran through the entire show. We put the models in order and watched and critiqed their walks. As soon as they were done, we went straight back to decorating. By 6 the rentals began to arrive. The tables, the linens, the cups, the plates, etc. We set up the tables and set each place setting. We stuck with it all night. And we finally left at 10pm right before we would have been forced to leave.
Saturday May 9th: the day I thought would never come. This might have been the first day all month that I was on time to school. Our sound man, Joe, and i got to school by 7am. Just about the same time as the Saturday School Kids, who got to help us out instead of cleaning toilets. While Joe and I reviewed the lights and sound, the Saturday School Kids finished decorating the tables and blew up ballons. The cast and crew began to arrive about 9. Before long everyone was here, the models, the designers, the DJ, the voluteers, everyone.
Words really dont describe the show. Lets just say it made my life time. My vision actually came to life. The show sold out at 88 tickets. Countless volunteers served lunch to the numerous guests. Everyone attending bought raffle tickets. My co-president and I spoke in front of everyone many times without being nervous at all. During lunch we shook hands with most of the guests. The show began with a speech by the Newman Millhollon, a past Director of Belize Faith Missions and now the Volunteer Organizer of State Street West, the small thrift store that funds the Millhollon Children's Home. The fashion show began with the models from Redlands East Valley High School who wore their own clothes. Each model, boys and girls, presented a daytime and night time look. After a raffle break, the Entertainment Today and Redlands High School Models showed off the clothes borrowed from the local shops. Our school, Arrowhead Christian Academy showed off the clothes we spent all school year sewing. We came up with many outfits all of which were shown off my models from Fashion Club. The show ended with the "Passing of the Presidency" as Lecia Rdzak and I stepped down as Presidents and announced that freshman Madelyn Mills and Maddie Weiss would be picking up where we left off next school year.
I would like to point out that I am 18 years old. I've been daydreaming about this show for more than two years. After the show, adults came up to me in utter shock. No one seemed to believe that two high school seniors could pull off something like we had.
A couple weeks later, we counted up the last of the checks, paid the last few people, and got the final amount. We raised $1455. I didnt think we could do it. It was a first year event and we made money for our chairty. More money than Newman Millhollon thought we would.
We proved to our high school that we were able. We proved to our community that when we all come together, things happen. And we proved to ourselves that this could possibly be what we were meant to do with our lives.

Our first event of the year was a Project Runway Challange.
We split the club into three groups, each had two designers and a model. We gathered supplies like material, old clothes, ribbon, lace, and beads, and made a huge pile.
The groups raced to grab the desired supplies so that they could complete their outfit.
After hours of sewing and cutting and lots of laughs, the outfits were done.
We presented the finished outfits to the audiance at opening night of the high school play, as the "play before the play".
The models learned to catwalk and we created a routine so that they could gracefully move around the props which were set up for the play.
The audiance then voted on the best outfit, cast their votes, and the winner was announced at the end of intermission.
The purpose of this event was to get publicity for the club. We are a small but mighty group and we had to show off what we could actually do. It was a great success.

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Homelessness and Poverty

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