As a part of the campus-wide Howl For Haiti relief program, Park Scholars and the College of Textiles partnered to host the Date For The Quake event Saturday in Talley Student Center Ballroom.
Howl For Haiti is the campus-wide disaster relief effort started in January with the purpose of aiding Haitian earthquake victims.
In a letter to the student body about Howl For Haiti, Student Body President Jim Ceresnak said, “This will be a collective effort of our entire campus community to raise funds for Stop Hunger Now, our traditional philanthropy partner that has been charged with providing immediate relief to earthquake victims.”
Date For the Quake included a fashion show, which was hosted by the College of Textiles; a date auction, hosted by the Park Scholars and live music. The music was provided by three local bands, Carolina Roadkill, Arielle Bryant and Endeavour.
Yesenia Perez Olmedo, a freshman in First Year College who attended the fashion show, said “The fashion show was really good. I learned that N.C. State has a fashion major, which I didn’t know before going to the fashion show.”
Ashley Thornton, a junior in fashion and textile management and a co-director of the fashion show, said “Planning and putting on a fashion show requires a lot of people. Personally, I was in charge of choosing the order of the models, and making sure the timing was right during the show.”
The designs at the fashion show ranged from everyday, ready-to-wear clothes and more artistic designs that aren’t for everyday wear.
Thornton said, “The designers were awesome to work with before the show. On the day of the show, the models were great and the timing was absolutely perfect.”
Overall, Thornton and co-director Sarah Linville, a junior in fashion and textile management, were very pleased with the way the fashion show turned out.
“The attendance for the Date For The Quake event was great,” Thornton said. “We were really happy that a lot of people attended the fashion show itself.”
Ceresnak, who served as the date auctioneer, said, “The participants of the date auction all had a great sense of humor, the people really seemed to love the auction. Overall, this whole event was great.”
Pattie Hofland, a junior in fashion and textile management, and Rachel Conley, a junior in fisheries and wildlife sciences, approached Cresenak about putting on this event.
Cresenak said, “The big thank you for this event needs to go out to Rachel Conley and Pattie Hofland and all the volunteers. Everyone involved was just great.”
“This event just goes to show how incredible the Howl For Haiti fundraising campaign has been. Anything that raises awareness about a world event and money to go to the victims at the same time is great. All the events that have been held as a part of Howl for Haiti have been great,” Ceresnak said.
Howl for Haiti has been an ongoing series of events since the earthquakes hit Haiti on January 12. The initial earthquake has been called the strongest earthquake to hit Haiti since 1770. In addition to the major earthquake, the island nation experienced 33 aftershocks.
“The Howl for Haiti events have all been creative ideas,” Ceresnak said. “All these events and [the] support show how willing N.C. State students are to do anything they can to support the community and the world.”