Fashion show for charity helps young people shine

Parents simultaneously applaud and cry each year as their children make their way down a runway at a small fashion show for charity.

For the children, who have various disabilities, the show is a chance to dress up and forget any struggles they may have off the catwalk.

For their families, it is a chance to see their children, who might not be able to score a winning goal or compete in a spelling bee, shine in public.

"It doesn't happen as easily with our kids, so these moments are really special," Suzanne Borio of Plymouth Meeting said. "Heidi Klum's parents could not be more proud."

Borio's 15-year-old daughter, Dana, who has Down syndrome, looks forward to the show all year. She plans to blow kisses as she walks down the runway. Other girls are practicing their hair flips.

Thirty-one children and young adults from Philadelphia and its suburbs in Pennsylvania and New Jersey will model at the fifth annual SpecialKids/SpecialCare Fashion Show and luncheon in Philadelphia on Sunday.

"They just love feeling special and strutting down the runway," said Linda Mullen Convery of Conshohocken, organizer of the event. "To see these kids and what they can accomplish is really heartwarming."

The show, to be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hilton on City Avenue, will raise money with raffle baskets. Nearly 275 people have already bought tickets, and a limited number will be sold at the door.

Last year, a 10-year-old girl named Erin, who has cerebral palsy, was determined to walk down the runway without her poles. So that's what she did.

The event has raised more than $21,000 for resources for local children with special needs, including the Special Olympics of Montgomery County and the Variety Club Camp and Developmental Center in Worcester.

Convery, a wardrobe and image stylist, decided to help people like her 21-year-old daughter, Rachel Forcina, who has intellectual disabilities.

She said one of her goals was to one day watch her models share a runway with other models in Center City during Fashion Week.

The models will get their hair and makeup done and show off clothes on loan from Macy's at the Plymouth Meeting Mall.

They range from a 16-month-old boy who will be pulled in a wagon to a 23-year-old woman. Some models have taken part in wheelchairs.

More than two dozen students from West Chester University will pair up with the models on Sunday for the fourth straight year. Members of the school's chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children will help dress the models.

But the students will spend most of their time keeping the models occupied backstage with games, puzzles, and books.

"You can see the joy they get in helping kids with disabilities," said Claire Verden, associate professor of special education at West Chester and an adviser to the student group. "It affirms for them that they really want to be special-education teachers."

The fashion show is one of the students' favorite events.

Lindsay Dietz, a West Chester senior and double major in middle school and special education, will help in her fourth fashion show.

"Because you spend so much time with them, once you put them on the runway, you get a sense of pride," Dietz, 21, said. "We say, 'That's my kid!' "