School is not only about academics, but the activities one can join and invest their free time into. Whether it is an after school club or a one-time event like the fashion show, students can embrace a different side to them and have fun with others who hold similar interests.

Luckily, OHS provides a constant variety of choices available including many new events each year like the school’s first ever fashion show. Not only do these things bring students together, but they can also have the lasting effect of holding a greater purpose beyond the event.

“I think it went great. Being in STUGO what we try to do is connect different parts of the school together and try to fundraise as much money as we can for the school. This fashion show was purely out of Goodwill because we really want to fundraise money for clubs,” said John Zeng, junior.

Even as the hosts made an effort to be prepared for the show, complications still arose from the sponsors.

“I know I talked about Dillards and Mens Warehouse working with us, but the day before they decided not to work with us. It was really hard at first, but we contacted a bunch of different department stores and boutiques and all that just to see if they would work with us even though it was really last minute. JCPenny pulled through and they were able to provide us with ten dresses and a suit, which is insane because we weren’t expecting them to do it like that,” said Victoria Le, senior.

Even on short notice, the outfits courtesy of JCPenny were set to impress viewers, hosts, and models alike.

“The JCPenny ones with the prom outfits, they all literally looked so good. I was so surprised because I thought we were going to have to make alterations but they fit everyone perfectly,” Le said. 

After unforeseen events happened too close to the day for comfort, the fashion show still had to go on and fortunately the models made the best of the situation. 

“I was worried mostly about how the changing situation was going to work since we just divided the tents by gender. Personally I was just worried some people aren’t comfortable changing in front of everyone, but everyone was a good sport about it,” Le said.

Once the day came for the models to put their talents on display, there were still some concerns in the back of their minds.

“Definitely since the runway wasn’t on a flat surface when we were building it, it was a little wobbly, but during intermissions and between outfits we fixed it and made it more stable for the models to walk on,” said Le.

Despite the difficulties, the models committed to their performance leaving the audience overjoyed with a much more entertaining show.

“I really liked it. I know Cian and Davis did a lot of funny walks like they did some acts when they were going out onto the runway which made the audience laugh a lot,” Le said.

Even once the rounds of outfits and the performances of the models came to a close, the show was not over thanks to the help of the club’s at OHS.

“We got our clubs involved, they participated in making the bidding baskets and we got a lot of tickets for the bidding baskets so that means a lot of money goes back to the clubs,” Zeng said.

After the hard work put in by the hosts and partnering clubs, the bidding baskets were a huge success with plenty of students buying tickets in hopes of winning their desired prize.

“We got so many tickets, I think one of the biggest, coolest things about the bidding baskets is that we got the clubs to help us. In total we got eight bidding baskets and the parents loved them too. The parents loved them, there were so many tickets, I think it went great,” Zeng said.

When it finally came time to announce the winners after the long-held anticipation the hosts created, the participants were on the edge of their seats, eager to see if they won.

“I know at the end when people were announcing the winners, people were just really excited to see [the winners]. Even though some people didn’t win…they were able to have fun with it,” said Le.

After this year’s success with both the fashion show and bidding basket ticket sales, the hosts look to the future to expand their impact.

“Instead of going back to our school, maybe we could help charities within our school because I also wanted to work with Kendall’s Kindness. Maybe next year we can work with them,” Le said.

Before these hopes for the future even began to surface, the hosts had some worries for their first fashion that things might not go as they hoped; however, everything turned out successfully in the end.

“I was really worried about the turnout of people and of course with an outside event at school, it’s always hard to get people to turn up, but honestly at the end of the day, the bidding baskets got a lot of money donated to them and got a lot of money raised. I think each year we’ll gradually get more and more people to come,” Zeng said.

As all the worry surrounding the day came and went, and though the many setbacks, all the hard work the hosts put in finally paid off.

“I am just so proud of Victoria for doing such a good job. I mean she was the only committee chair, our first fashion show so I could definitely see it stressed her out at some parts but in the end it was just perfect. We raised so much money for the school, we got money for the 20th anniversary gift. The clubs are happy with the funds they raised too so this was just a very cool, interconnecting project to invite clubs and invite even just regular students of all grades to walk as models. It’s a really cool thing to see for it to all come together,” Zeng said.