UMaine Student Organizes Chic Fashion Show to Benefit United Way
Contact: Jessica Richards at 207-941-2800, ext 220; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — A UMaine student who is organizing and coordinating a charity fashion show hopes the project will bring a little unusual entertainment to the area, while at the same time raise money for the United Way of Eastern Maine.
Jessica Richards of Orrington, a journalism major with a concentration in advertising, has organized a spring styles benefit fashion show March 30 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Spectacular Event Center in Bangor. Proceeds will benefit the United Way, where Richards is completing an internship this semester.
Emceed by Kristen Andresen, a Bangor Daily News reporter and “ShopGirl” columnist, the event will showcase 10 local models from UMaine or area high schools wearing Macy’s daytime, business and nighttime spring junior fashions and chic big-city styles.
Music for the event will be donated by Michael Strout of Music Central DJ Services.
Richards conceived the idea last spring, while transitioning into the position of community service director for the UMaine student chapter of the American Marketing Association, affiliated with the Maine Business School at UMaine. It has taken her almost a year to make connections and arrangements for the “Rendezvous Fashion Benefit” and learn html computer language and build a website to promote the show.
Richards says the project is giving her an opportunity to fulfill one of the goals of the AMA chapter, to work with area businesses in a volunteer or charitable capacity. It also has been an invaluable learning experience, she says.
“I knew with this event I’d be getting a whole lot of practical experience, mostly in event planning, and certainly event planning goes along with the marketing I will be doing in the real world,” she says. Some of the work she has done has included recruiting and photographing models, creating advertisements, contacting area businesses in search of financial and in-kind services support, working out details with Macy’s store managers and securing space at the Spectacular Event Center, located at 395 Griffin Road in Bangor.
“Right now things are looking really good,” says Richards, who last year collected “Dress for Success” business clothing for students of the Penobscot Job Corps in Bangor. She expects there will be substantial community interest in this year’s project, the fashion show.
“I know so many young girls in the area and they watch TV and they see all these fashion shows and we really don’t have this kind of event in the Bangor area for junior women,” she says, “so I wanted to offer something really original that we hadn’t done before.”
Young women from area high schools and colleges will model the clothing. The show also will feature local model Victoria Lee Fuller, who has walked the runways of two New York City designer fashion shows. She also has photographed for the cover of Nylon Magazine and Simply Chic’s store website at www.ShopSimplyChic.com.
Tickets are $12 and include appetizers. A cash bar will be available to those with proper identification. The cocktail hour begins at 7 p.m.; the fashion show begins at 8 p.m. Anyone over the age of 21 who attends the benefit fashion show is invited to celebrate afterward at the Sea Dog Brewery and Restaurant, a show co-sponsor.
Tickets also can be purchased through the Rendezvous website (www.myspace.com/rendezvousfashion) or by sending a check payable to the United Way, care of Jessica Richards, United Way of Eastern Maine, 24 Springer Drive, Suite 201, Bangor, 04401. Richards also can be reached for more information by email at Jessica.Richards@umit.maine.edu or by telephone at 941-2800, extension 220.
For details about how the United Way of Eastern Maine helps the people in the community, visit its website (www.unitedwayem.org).
Richards says she has received generous assistance from former Macy’s manager William Kearns and current Macy’s manager Anthony Paratore, who is providing 30 outfits for the young women to model. Crystal Small of Dej