SADD fashions life lessons

Hewlett High School’s SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) club hosted their annual fashion show on Dec. 5.
Established more than decade ago, the club asks local clothing stores to donate outfits for student models, which allows the stores to showcase their new merchandise. Also, a number of local beauty salons donate their services for models so that they’re ready to rock the runway. It is fun, but it takes a substantial amount of work and dedication to for the event. There are four club presidents including myself, and two faculty advisors, Sheryl Gordon and Dr. Lois Schulman. Planning for the event began in September.
The theme of this year’s show was SADD S(CARES), a haunted-house, Halloween-vibe, which still allowed for the club to spread awareness of their mission to educate the local community on the dangers of making poor decisions, such as drinking and driving, doing drugs and managing stress poorly. Decorations included an 8-foot cutout of a scary-looking tree, plenty of balloons, a forest backdrop, a 6-foot life size headless horseman and a cardboard coffin, all sticking with the theme of the night.
“The SADD fashion show is an exciting night for people to enjoy filled with fashion, food, and prizes, but more importantly gets the SADD message out to the community. Though the fashion show is fun, the event aims to push SADD’s message that teens need to make the correct choices and steer clear of trouble,” said co-president and junior Lindsey Reiter.
As memories are made, lessons are learned, laughs are shared the show steadily comes together. From booking hair appointments to selecting the theme and décor to writing the monologue and speeches, each task required cooperation and motivation to ensure the show would be a hit.

“The show went really well from a model’s point of view and someone who has been a part of the backstage crew in the past. SADD S(CARES) was definitely a successful show!” said senior Sarah Walder, a SADD vice president.
Mixology in Hewlett, Morton’s in Cedarhurst and Murlee’s in Lynbrook generously donated outfits for our models to wear. This year, we had about 30 models in total. Keeping the outfits organized backstage amidst the chaos of the models changing was difficult. Luckily, with the hard work of the backstage crew, this obstacle was overcome.
“I had to make sure that everyone knew where they had to be and when. Most people did not know the order of the show and I was in charge of making sure that everything was running smoothly and on time,” said junior and stage manager Jolie Schonstein.
Although a good time was shared by all, there were a few last-minute challenges. One of the presidents, Alexandra Gerber, fell ill the night before the show and was unable to attend. However, we were able to successfully adjust the script before the night’s show and all worked out, even though it wasn’t exactly as planned.
Although Gerber was absent all of her hard work and efforts that she put into the show helped make it the success it was. No matter how many late-night rehearsals, fittings, and the countless amount of run-throughs, the fashion show was certainly a memorable experience and a good time had by all-- both the people behind the scenes and the ones on the stage.