Written by Steph Strucaly and Kristine Adams

This past Friday, March 9, Morgan and Eliot students strutted their “stuff” in the Morgan auditorium for the 6th Annual Morgan Interact Prom Fashion Show. Just like a New York Fashion Week show, there was glamour, pumping music, and sassy poses. The over $900 made from the Interact event was given to the Art from the Heart organization and The Clinton Rotary Cancer Relief Fund.
Art from the Heart is a subgroup of Circle of Care, a service group lending a hand to children with cancer. Art from the Heart, a local version of Extreme Makeover Home Edition, is a coalition of Daniel Hand and Morgan School students, who meet periodically from February to May to plan a design for a child’s room. Every January, one child’s name is chosen randomly from a jar in the waiting room at the Yale Pediatric Oncology Center. This year, Joshua, age 7, was picked for his room makeover. Mrs. Nunan,the Morgan advisor for Art from the Heart, has been involved with the cause since 2007. While teaching a housing and design class, which is no longer offered at Morgan, she was asked by Hand teachers if she would like to join them in the newly formed group. Since then, Mrs. Nunan has helped with the design of seven cancer patients’ rooms. Each time has been a successful and uplifting experience for the students, advisors, and the patients. How do they raise all this money? While Hand students hold a bakesale, Morgan students get dressed up to walk the runway for their fashion show. Half of their earnings goes to the Cancer Relief Fund in Clinton.
The new Interact advisor, Mrs. Robinson, organized the event for the first time. Her intentions were to show off “some lovely ladies in beautiful dresses with handsome men by their side”. And that is just what audience members got. Serafina Sicignano, who attended the show, commented afterwards, “I liked how the show was organized into different categories from simple but elegant, to short and casual, to glitzy for prom. I really felt like the way they were modeled caught my eye and made me interested in buying some.” Not only did the show include fashion, but Interact members raffled off prom-themed gifts, such as a $200 valued limo ride, junior and senior prom tickets, gift cards for pampering oneself before prom, and a Christo Jewelers’ watch, originally priced at $150. To say the least, the Interact club was thrilled at the outcome of the show, especially at the size of this year’s audience. President of Interact, Emily Perzanoski said, “It’s great that the fashion show seems to be getting more and more popular each year. We’re so happy to be able to raise the amount of money we do to give to these two amazing organizations”.
The Saturday following the show was a dress sale held in the Morgan library. Run by the “Dress for Less” group, lightly worn gowns were sold for either $10, $30, or $50. The money made at this event was again put towards Joshua’s new room. The group gathered $440 from the sale on Saturday alone; however, on Tuesday, March 20, there will be another sale directly after school in the Morgan library. Mrs. Nunan, who is apart of Dress for Less as well, hopes to bring a crowd to the sale a second time around.
As models who participated in the fashion show, we believe that the cause behind both the show and Art from the Heart gives a rewarding feeling. We feel satisfied to know we helped lift a child’s spirits. Mrs. Nunan and Mrs. Robinson will agree that we are thankful for the support given by anyone who attended the show, gave a donation, or bought a dress from the sale. Watch out for another show-stopping performance by your very own Morgan models in years to come!