The Viper fashion design students worked together to create 55 dresses for girls overseas.
By MADISON PHARIS,
LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News
Students from Vandegrift have gathered their skills and pillowcases to create dresses, all of them to be donated to students with special needs in Nicaragua. Working together with the Nicaragua Resource Network, a Christian organization, the fashion design students of Deanna Bentley’s class will be delivering around 55 dresses to girls out of the country.
Fashion design was a new course for Vandegrift last year.
“I knew I wanted to implement a service project into the curriculum. What I didn’t know is how committed the students would be to the need that was presented to them,” Bentley said. “This generation of kids is very service driven. Give them a need and they run with it.”
The students used a standard pattern for creating the dresses but were able to add their own creative touch, giving each dress a unique look in construction and fabric pattern.
The project was Emily Youngblood’s favorite project in fashion design before graduating from VHS in June.
“I love that I got to be a part of providing clothing to those that don’t have as much as we do,” Youngblood said.
Austin Christian Fellowship planned to send a team to Nicaragua this month to serve the Rey Salomon Agape Special Needs School but this trip, along with others, was canceled.
“All 20 (Nicaragua Resource Network) trips from the U.S. had to be canceled this summer due to the political unrest, violence and difficulty traveling within the country,” said Claire Balfour, who leads teams and has been serving in Nicaragua with her family since 2010.
ACF hopes to send a team of leaders in this fall, and the dresses would be delivered then.
Up until 2005 most special needs children in Nicaragua could not go to school because there were no schools for them. Balfour said the Agape school has made a difference. The school now has over 200 students and 25 staff members, who have made enormous progress in the face of autism, Down Syndrome, deafness, learning disabilities and a range of acute physical disabilities.
“This (fashion design dress) project means the world to me. First, that Mrs. Bentley would consider a service project for girls in a country 2000 miles away is amazing and heart warming. It attests to the goodness we have in our community,” said Balfour, a Steiner Ranch resident.
“People in Nicaragua are in desperate need and now more than ever with the civil unrest and violence taking place,” Balfour said. “Most make less than $2 per day and their first prayers are daily bread. It is a joy to give them something beautiful and hand made with love.”
VHS students agree.
“Having the opportunity to send some handmade dresses over to the kids in need is the most fulfilling thing I think we could do with our hard work,” said Meredith Robertson, VHS incoming senior. “It’s really fun to create in general, but seeing it put to good use assures you it was worth it.”
Madelyn Brown made this pillowcase dress in the Vandegrift fashion design class for a special need girl in Nicaragua.
Ina Edstrom shows dress made from pillowcases in fashion design class at Vandegrift last spring. The dresses will be given to girls with special needs in Nicaragua.
McKinzie Balfour works with special needs children when she goes to Nicaragua on mission trips with Austin Christian Fellowship.