Project Runway

Saturday, April 16th was the 8th Annual Pacekids Fashion Show Gala & Auction Fundraiser. The vision at Pacekids is to provide quality education and therapeutic services for children with special needs. They have grown significantly in recent years, doubling the number of children they serve as a result of two new programs. Through this event, they raise the funds necessary to operate the school and its programs, so that our beautiful Taylor and all of the other very special students have the opportunity to realize their potential. Their goal this year was to raise $50,000.

What makes the fashion show part of the evening so special is that the kids from Pace are the models, along with their siblings. So that meant Taylor and Marissa got to be runway models for a night! There was plenty of primping that afternoon getting ready for the event. First up and long overdue was a haircut for Taylor at Beaners. I french braided Marissa's hair and painted her nails. Granny made beautiful pearl jewellery for the girls, including a freshwater pearl binky clip for Taylor...outstanding!

The jewels

The shoes

The gowns

The fashion show was wonderful. Of course my favourite part was seeing my girls all gussied up, but the kids were all great. They were in wheelchairs, walkers, braces...all with proud siblings by their side. Beautiful. Emotional. Funny. Funny with respect to Marissa anyways! I suppose a room full of grown ups staring at you is kinda intimidating and can bring out shyness in little ones. Marissa's 'shy' takes the form of her playing with her tongue. It sticks out, rolls around, eyes down like she's all embarrassed. Funny girl indeed. Cause once you know her she's so far from shy! As the girls were approaching our table I got up to take some photos. To my horror when I clicked the button for the first time, nothing happened. At that very moment I could see the memory card sitting on my desk at home. I'm still sick about it. No photos. Luckily there was a photographer there for the evening doing candids of the fashion show, and taking family photos afterwards. So, thanks to Illusions Photography, here's a couple...

Thank you Sharlene for escorting my little darlings and taking care of them for the evening!

Our family shot

Dinner was a really great buffet with so many choices. I realized halfway through the line that I had taken up far too much space on my plate with salad and barely had enough room for the good stuff!

The auctioneer for the evening was Jon Montgomery, Canadian gold medal winner for Men's Skeleton at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Seems like an odd roll for an Olympian, but his career is actually as a car salesman and auctioneer. He totally made the auction, he kept things going and was lots of fun. Man, can he talk fast!!

We had a really nice evening. Joining us at our table was Mom & Bryan, Kim & Martin, Debbie & Jonathan. Thank you guys so much for coming and supporting Pace, it means so much. To us, and to so many amazing families. And a big thank you to Taylor's aide Sharlene, she escorted the girls for the fashion show, took them home, looked after them and put them to bed so that we could enjoy our night at the event.

I love this shot that Illusions took of one of the tables from up above