After being inspired by a fundraiser held at Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), I thought of having an International Fashion & Food Show at Juniata College to help raise money for students traveling on the January 2015 Cultural Learning Tour to the Dominican Republic. This event was sponsored by my club, Amigos de Guanin, and also by Nourish International and the International Cooking Club.
I originally wanted to do this event with only my club, but I quickly realized that I would need expertise from other areas, especially if we wanted to make food at our event, since I’m not very skilled in the kitchen. The other club presidents, Andrea Morillo, Rachel Wood, T Nang Pan, and I started planning the event in September and met every Monday evening for an hour. After two months of planning, we finally held our event on Saturday, Nov. 22 in Baker Refectory.
As an MC for the night, I had the opportunity to wear a beautiful Indian sari!
The collaboration for the International Fashion & Food Show is what amazed me the most. We advertised in the daily announcements that we would be needing models, and we quickly found over 20 people who were interested in helping us represent 15 countries from around the world. Many of the models also prepared a dish from the country that they were representing. In addition, several clubs on campus, such as the Korean and Japanese clubs, prepared massive amounts of food!
With so many different components, you may be wondering how we even made a profit. And to be honest, we wouldn’t have made a profit at all if it weren’t for the $1,380 allocation from Student Government. This allocation covered all expenses, so all money that we raised from ticket sales was considered to be profit.
Not only was this event a huge success in the fact that we raised close to $1,200 that would be split among the three clubs, but also because I was able to meet and work closely with some truly incredible people from around the world.
The best part is that I didn’t even have to spend thousands of dollars traveling the globe to find them! Juniata College has this uncanny ability to bring people together, no matter what their cultural backgrounds might be, and for this, I am truly grateful!
Four of our models rambunctiously represented Germany by dancing onto the runway!