From high fashion down to children’s hoodies, Assistance League Pueblo is all about those clothes.
The sold-out gala, highlighted by gift giveaways and the latest in winter, business and spring apparel, is a primary fundraiser for the league’s signature undertaking, Operation School Bell.
Through the course of four-plus decades, Operation School Bell has seen more than 36,000 underprivileged schoolchildren clothed with new jackets, slacks, shirts, dresses and so forth.
This September, 1,136 youngsters were treated to a clothing shopping spree at Kmart in anticipation of the new school year. The children also were gifted with a hygiene kit and a book.
It’s the fashion show, coupled with proceeds from the league’s Bargain Box used clothing store and other fundraisers, that enables volunteers with the non-profit organization to raise the self esteem and confidence of countless young men and women in both local school districts.
“It’s about making children feel better about themselves,” said Linda McEwan, president of the Pueblo league. “No student wants to go back to school wearing last year’s clothes or their brother’s or sister’s clothes or clothes they’ve outgrown.”
Inside a festively decorated convention center filled with 650 equally ornamented women (and a handful of men), the latest in apparel from Dillard’s at the Pueblo Mall was introduced by 16 professional models from a Denver-based agency.
From winter wear to holiday attire to business suits to summer casual, the outfits were greeted with applause, “oohs and ahhs” and the occasional waving of the red napkin.
Especially when the handsome male models flashed their mega-watt smiles and strutted down the extended runway.
“Yes, our male models always have their own cheering section,” said McEwan with a grin. “And when you add in doing good for children, food, fashion and wine, well, that’s a deadly combination. It doesn’t get any better.”
Indeed, the fashion gala is a high point on any woman’s social calendar.
Hosted once again by Craig Eliot Cisney in his typical charming, tongue-in-cheek manner, the preview illustrated that women and men don’t have to live in a fashion mecca like Milan or New York City to look like a million bucks.
“All the clothes you see here today are available at the local Dillard’s,” McEwan said. “And we are very happy to have partnered with them all these years.”
In addition to the strutting professional models — who did their charismatic thing to pumping, pulsating music — local youngsters proudly showed off some of the clothing items purchased through Operation School Bell.
All of the league members have stories about how Operation School Bell touched the lives of children when they most needed it.
“One of my more interesting ones happened when I went to my doctor,” McEwan said. “I found out that the technician taking care of me had gone through Operation School Bell as a child. She and her mother had been homeless while she was in school.
“And at the Bargain Box, a lady came in and bought a whole bunch of kids’ clothes. And I asked her, ‘What in the world are you going to do with all this?’”
As it turned out the woman and her mother were part of Operation School Bell all those years ago.
“Now that woman is a teacher, and she told me, ‘I come back and buy clothes that I can give to my kids in class, because I know how much it changed my life.’”
