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OIFW Day 3: The Autism Speaks Benefit Dinner and Show Creates Cultural Overload
by Mellissa Thomas
Orlando International Fashion Week deepened its imprint during its Autism Speaks benefit dinner and fashion show at the Orlando Science Center Tuesday, November 4, 2014. While many were still rushing to the polls, Central Florida’s fashion lovers gathered in the picturesque Orlando Science Center for a night of fashion, delicious food, and a powerful cause: Autism awareness.
The night began with a mixer with local vendors, including It Works! Body Wraps, Onli Beverages, The Pampered Chef, UCF’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD), Autism Speaks, and local artisan jewelers.
A Picture-Perfect Dinner
Attendees enjoyed delicious dinner on the museum’s Suntrust Terrace with lighting worthy of a romance film: lines of tiny naked incandescent bulbs reached from the terrace roof to its railing, sweeping the area with warm light, countering the night’s cool mid-sixties breeze and dancing reverently beneath a full moon.
Source: Fierce Entertainment Management.
Java Lava catered the night with a cash bar and an almost Mongolian barbecue style offering, letting people choose what they would like on their plate and cooking it on the spot. Elite Catering & Events, LLC provided extra munchies thanks to its demo table serving red wine cabbage, pork, mushrooms, and mashed potatoes on small biscuits with creamy cheese.
Everyone filled their bellies with a little boogie thanks to not one, but two deejays, spinning current and old school Hip Hop, soul, and eighties hits – everything from “Anaconda” to “She Drives Me Crazy.”
The Main Event
The show’s seating was set up in the museum’s vast Dino Digs gallery.
Yes. Dinosaurs.
Several twenty- to thirty-feet-tall dinosaur skeletons – including the T-Rex, of course – became additional audience members surrounding the dozens of humans who came to enjoy the show, even periodically swinging their heads and roaring in approval during the show. Special guests included Miss International World Jenney Rosario and the night’s featured designer seven-year-old Autistic advocate Suleiman Alqadheeb.
Source: Fierce Entertainment Management.
Media personality, former Orlando Magic dancer, and Miss Florida USA 2010 Megan Clementi hosted the event, kicking it off by acknowledging the night’s beneficiary, Autism Speaks, and a brief interview with Alqadheeb.
Brooklyn native Shabar Cromer’s Designs by Shabar Cromer emerged first (below right), showcasing edgy women’s wear with geometric cutouts, demanding colors, and all the attitude of “that chick” in the club who just knows she’s the most gorgeous one in the room.
Source: Sandra Nicole Rhodes.
Between showcases, Hawaiian transplant Brianna Abregado, who performed at the Kickoff Press Party, serenaded the audience live with two original tracks that offered a combined Pop and R&B sound.
Following Abregado’s performance was Rich & Norelis’s (R&N) Muse line, an eclectic collection of print and maxi dresses, which Norelis stated is meant to make women “feel sexy and comfortably confident.”
Source: Ashley Lebron.
Clementi briefly interviewed Rich and Norelis, who shared their story of meeting each other while working on a project, falling love, and working on their clothing line together. Norelis describes the line as a balance of sexiness and functionality, which Rich adds through certain accents. The couple explained they have a fall collection in the works and will expand into accessories.
Fabo Piano, Buddy Blues, and Abregano gave the audience a surprise treat for the night’s second interlude by performing an Ella Fitzgerald classic. Abregano poured her emotions into the song, proving frequent vocal comparisons to Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys. Fabo and Buddy performed an additional song before the audience got the unexpected shock of the night.
The Russian Ballet of Orlando Ups the Ante…In Only Four Minutes
Katerina Fedotova’s Russian Ballet of Orlando dispatched its two finest ballerinas: principal ballerina Marissa (below), and Cecille. Marissa gracefully performed a classical piece, much in the same jaunty vein as her performance during Florida Fashion Weekend, wowing the crowd with her continuous string of perfect pirouettes at the close of her performance. Cecille followed with more emotive routine, dancing to a haunting and somber Celine Dion singing in a different language. Cecille channeled Dion’s sorrow so palpably the audience threw up cheers, whistles, claps, and “wows”.
Source: Fierce Entertainment Management.
The Spot Studio’s Carlos Colon commented, “I’m having a cultural overload right now. Dinosaurs, fashion, Russian ballet, this is awesome.”
Though the Russian Ballet of Orlando was a tough act to follow, Clementi returned to introduce Trish Green’s TG Originals, a collection of what can be described as clothing for the “grown woman”, including cutouts and lace, and a primarily monochromatic palette of black, white, and gray.
Fabo and Buddy performed their final set of the night, featuring Fabo rapping in fluent German.
The Closing Act
Trish Green and Shabar Cromer’s joint venture line Triatic concluded the showcase with its summer collection, which boasts vibrant gold and print bikinis with ornate cutout patterns, a blouse-kini (if that’s a term) consisting of a long-sleeved black midriff top with print accents to match the print bikini bottom.
Source: Trish Green.
The show left the audience amazed and pleased. “You guys totally stepped it up this year,” Colon praised. “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do next year.”
Want to get in on the fun? There’s still some week left! Check out the OIFW 2014 schedule and buy your tickets at orlandointernationalfashionweek.com.
About the Author:
Orlando Fashion Magazine Chief Editor and Publisher Mellissa Thomas is a Jamaica-born writer. She’s a decorated U.S. Navy veteran with Entertainment Business Masters and Film Bachelors degrees from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL.
She’s currently available for hire, writing marketing material, website content, and as a manuscript editor. She also writes poetry, screenplays, and ghostwrites books.
She has published four books, all available on Amazon.com. Her most recent release, Faded Diamonds, is now available in paperback on all major online book retailers and digitally available on the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.
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WINTER PARK, Fla. (Florida National News) – Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness, inspired by the children’s TV host and icon, comes to Orlando in March 2023. This week-long series of events was announced today at the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation in Winter Park.
“Fred McFeely Rogers devoted his entire life to reminding us of some of the most important ideas of what it means to be human among humans: love, respect and kindness,” explained Buena Vista Events & Management President & CEO Rich Bradley. “Many of us find that nearly 20 years after Fred’s passing, it is important to focus on his teachings once again, perhaps now more than ever. This is a week to re-engage with his massive body of work with some folks, and to introduce his teachings to others.”
Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness begins March 20, 2023, the date which would have been Fred’s 95th birthday, and concludes on Saturday, March 26 with the Red Sweater Soiree, a community dinner to recognize ten ordinary members of the community who inspire and exemplify the affinity that Fred Rogers had for showing kindness to our “Neighbors”.
Mister Rogers Week of Kindness coming March 20-26, 2023. Photo Credit: Mike Brodsky (Florida National News)
Activities planned for the week will include early childhood education activities and faculty training, as well as events open to the public.
“The events will be offered free or at low cost,” continued Bradley. “This week-long celebration is not a series of fundraisers, but rather about once again remembering and sharing some of the great work that Fred Rogers created, not only in early childhood education, but in reminding us that we are all part of one big ‘neighborhood’. Fred taught us the importance of accepting our Neighbors just the way they are and engaging in kindness with our interactions. I can’t think of another period in my lifetime where we needed to reflect on those messages again more than today.”
“There are three ways to ultimate success,” Fred Rogers was once quoted as saying. “The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind. Imagine what our neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.”
Many of the activities of Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness will be attended by members of the cast and crew of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 – 1975, and again from 1979 – 2001. David Newell, known as “Mr. McFeely,” the “Speedy Delivery” man, appeared at today’s media conference via video, and looks forward to visiting Central Florida next March.
David Newell, “Mr. McFeely.” Photo Credit: Mike Brodsky (Florida National News)
Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness is supported by the McFeely-Rogers Foundation, the Fred Rogers Institute, and Fred Rogers Productions. Details regarding the specific activities and venues will be released over the next few weeks.
For more information on the events, visit https://www.BuenaVistaEvents.com or https://www.MisterRogersWeekofKindness.com.
