Fossil Ridge High School hosted their first “Fashion with Friends” event Feb 24 at 7:00 p.m. This event was hosted and run by seniors Brianna Krueger and Jamie Johar for their senior service project in Mr. Neals advisory class.

This event consisted of 14 disabled models from Poudre School District schools and included FRHS students Ashely Hunter, Ryan Davis, and Corey Schnieder. Each member walked out to their favorite song playing in the back ground while accompanied by a member from the Jamie’s senior class.

Johar said she had the idea of hosting a special needs fashion after watching a documentary and thought it would be a good idea to get the Fort Collins community and school to have a similar event.

“[this event helped] gives a chance for the kids to express themselves,” Johar said.

Johar and Krueger had been working continuously since October and were responsible to reserve the PAC to host the event at, make and distribute flyers to the Poudre schools, post an article in the Coloradoan, make a Facebook page, and even have a radio announcement to get the word out to everyone.

At the show, each contestant walked the red carpet twice with different themes. The theme for their first walk was “Red Carpet Ready,” and each model wore their nicest clothes. Girls mostly wore sparkly dresses and skirts while the guys wore tuxedos and suites. The second walk was “What I love,” and this time contestants chose what they wanted to wear it. A lot of the girls wore cheerleading outfits or simply just jeans and a t-shirt while the guys wore a t-shirt and pants. For the second walk each contestants also had the opportunity to show their personality. Johar and Krueger also told the audience what each contestant’s favorite color, food, and television show was, as well as told them what their biggest dream was while each member walked the red carpet.

The models had a lot of spirit and were able to express themselves the way they wanted to while on the catwalk. At the end of both walks, each member was crowned and received a sash for participatin in the event.

Ryan Davis, senior at FRHS and model in the fashion show, said “it was fun going out there and giving my best.”

There were many parents and siblings of each contestants at the show; many of which who came up to thank the volunteers who participated in the event. Over 500 dollars were donated by the audience which went to the Special Olympic fund.

Johar hopes to pass on this event to another advisory class next year to start a new tradition at FRHS.