Telluride AIDS Benefit Student Fashion Show, 2/24

21 Feb Telluride AIDS Benefit Student Fashion Show, 2/24

[click "Play", Susan speaks with Devin McCarthy and Charlotte Delpit about the Student Show]

If she has said it once, Telluride AIDS Benefit board member/teacher Sandy McLaughlin has said it a dozen times: the action on the catwalk is not the primary reason the Benefit produces a Student Fashion Show. Read between the lines– clothing and otherwise.

For the Telluride AIDS Benefit, the big idea behind the clothes, the choreography, and the music is that  the pandemic persists largely unabated. The tenacity of the virus drives the need for  prevention education to keep everyone safe and raising money to support the Telluride AIDS Benefit's beneficiaries – The Western Colorado AIDS Project, Children's Hospital Immunodeficiency Project, Brother Jeff's Health Initiative, Manzini Youth Care Project, and the Ethiopian Family Fund – who in turn support those living with HIV/AIDS and their families.

The co-directors of the 2011 Student Fashion Show, February 24, 6 p.m., The Palm, are Charlotte Delpit and Devin McCarthy, two of Telluride's best and brightest teens. Both are also in TAB's (sold out) adult fashion show, Thursday, March 3, and Saturday, March 5.

The Telluride AIDS Benefit is in Charlotte's blood. And we mean that in a good sense. Her mother, Baerbel Hacke, director of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, has orchestrated TAB's art auction for 14 years.
 
"It is so important to educate we young adults from early on, before we go out there and have to start making our own choices about who we are intimate with. The simple fact of knowing how HIV is conceived and how it can be prevented puts millions of deaths on hold, and not just here—all around the world."

Devin is in the driver's seat for the second year in a row. Last year, she co-directed TAB's Student Fashion Show with Sandy's daughter, Mia McLaughlin.

"Although this show takes many hours of your time and creates a little stress, the feeling you get from doing it is priceless. There isn’t a better way to not only raise awareness, but raise money for a disease that overcomes so many lives. Charlotte and I wanted the models in this year's show to truly understand the importance of the Telluride AIDS Benefit, and what the disease is all about, so we decided to make a short informational movie, which will play before the show starts. In it, each model states a fact about HIV and AIDS. I think the main reason each model takes the time to do this show is for the end result. Each of us is able to say I have done my part to help fight and, hopefully, one day cure this dreadful disease. I am honored to be a part of the Telluride AIDS Benefit."

A list of models and sponsors follows.

To learn more about what goes on behind the scenes to make the Student Fashion Show happen, click the "play" button and listen to what Charlotte and Devin have to say.