On Friday, Apr. 4, thread’s annual fashion show fundraiser, “a common thread,” took center stage in Roberts Theater.
This year marked the third consecutive fashion show benefit for The Village for Families and Children, a nonprofit social service organization based in Hartford that has dedicated itself to providing support for underserved and at-risk families for over 200 years. The Village cares for families by supplying financial aid, adoption placement services, residential treatments for youth with mental health complications, and other forms of emotional and financial help.
“It’s such an important organization in our community, and it does so much good work,” senior and thread Editor-in-Chief Lily Temkin said. “ Finding ways to support it any way we can is really nice. It also shows care beyond self, which is such a core value of KO.”
All proceeds from thread’s ticket sales, silent auction, and individual donations went to The Village. In the end, thread was able to raise over $800 for the cause—a number that far surpassed Lily’s expectations. She confided that there had been difficulties with getting people to sign up to walk and to attend the show, to the point where thread had to cut the three themes they had planned to have people walk for down to just one: personal style. “ We went into it [the fashion show] with the intention of really expanding the show,” Lily said. “It’s just that the timing of it was hard, and coordinating people to walk is already a challenge.”
Nevertheless, despite all obstacles, thread put together an incredible event for both The Village and the KO community. “ This was our first time doing this much work for the fashion show,” Lily admitted. “It was definitely a little intimidating going into it with little-to-no structure.” Senior and creative director Joella Asapokhai agreed and described the many things the pair had to plan in order to get the show off the ground.
“ We organized all the logistical stuff, like figuring out the day, genuinely months in advance,” Joella explained. “We had the date on the calendar in September—so, really, really early.”
While Lily and Joella handled event planning, junior and Head of Events and Outreach Kate Dempsey-Weiner took control of the business side of things, reaching out to businesses in the West Hartford area for prizes thread could offer as part of their silent auction. Kate was able to convince several companies (including KO student favorites such as Playa Bowls, Bricco, and Bartaco) to participate in the fundraiser, drawing in gift cards ranging from $50-300 in value. Attendees were able to bid on these gift cards during the show’s silent auction, which began at 6:30 p.m. outside of Roberts Theater. To bid, people wrote down their names and how much they were bidding on a sheet of paper, and could check the progress of the bid throughout the show.
Beginning at 7:00 p.m., students and faculty alike strutted down the catwalk to their favorite songs while the crowd cheered them on. Senior Zaire Ramiz walked in the show for the third year in a row, flaunting his fun and colorful personal fashion. “We had lower numbers [of participants] this year, but every year it gets better and better,” Zaire said. “Everybody is really excited about it and willing to help out, and the audience always has such great energy.”
The vitality the audience brought to this year’s show was no joke. Screams erupted in Roberts Theater each time a new model made their way to the catwalk; each participant was met with a roaring round of applause and compliments shouted from the seats.
“It was so fun,” senior Nidhi Bhat commented after attending the show. “Everyone was super confident and authentic on stage, which I liked.”
The event could not have been possible without the hard work put in by the tech crew behind the scenes. In preparation for the benefit, senior Ryan Sadowsky had to set up the entire catwalk in a single day, as Roberts Theater was in use the day before for Upper School Admitted Students’ Day. Junior Matthew Belo handled lights and sound for the show with help from junior Dom Brunalli, as Technical Theater Director Michael Bane was out the week of the event.
All in all, “a common thread” was once again a massive success, thanks to the combined efforts of Lily, Joella, Kate, thread faculty advisor Catherine Schieffelin, and all the models, tech crew members, and attendees who helped to make the show possible.
