In an elegantly performed act of charity, new business owners Vanessa Heins of Casp Baby Mommy & Me Boutique on Beachland Boulevard and Amanda Shaffer of HauteDry, a full service hair salon on Cardinal Drive, combined style, fashion and humanity to host Kids on a Catwalk, an adorable children’s fashion show to benefit Haiti Partners’ educational programs.
The fashion show featured 30 local children who confidently strutted down the catwalk with runway attitude, modeling the continental flair of Casp fall fashions and HauteDry’s stylish hair and makeup design.
The event, which also featured a pre-show VIP party, took place at HauteDry, spilling over into Vero Beach Florist next door, owned by their friend Jessica Wilgeroth. When Shaffer first constructed her open design salon, she immediately recognized the potential to host events and runway shows.
On this evening the HauteDry Bar, where stylists generally perfect their clients’ coiffures, held a visually striking selection of crudités and tempting hors d’oeuvres created by yet another friend, Angie Law-Smith, and drinks from East Imperial. As guest noshed, they marveled at racks of pint-sized fashions from Casp, with labels by Lali, Oh Baby!, Persnickety, Mud Pie and others.
“Vanessa brought in the idea of working with Haiti Partners because she really wanted to get behind a good cause and they are just really good people with a great mission,” said Shaffer.
Each ticket price was donated directly to Haiti Partners along with an additional percentage donated by Heins on all floor sales.
Haiti Partners’ co-director Kent Annan appreciated the attendees’ support of Haitian children who would otherwise not receive an education in the poverty-stricken nation.
“The money raised tonight will benefit the education work that we do in Haiti,” said Annan. “It goes to everything it takes to have 1,200 children attend our seven schools. It’s going towards teacher and administrative salaries, supplies, helping rebuild schools after the earthquake and teacher training.”
Although the charitable aspect was the prime reason for the evening, Kylie O’Neill and the other child models were having a ball, excitedly prancing around before the show started.
“This is my first time doing something like this,” said O’Neill. “It’s just amazing and Casp Baby’s clothes are so awesome!”
Shaffer said she had enjoyed watching as they had their hair and makeup done and did their practice run-through – the boys in cool shades and slicked hair, and the girls in sweeping up-dos accented with flowers.
“At first they were really terrified by the big hair but once they saw each other, they would walk past the mirror and go, ‘Oh my hair is so cool!’” said Shaffer. “We call it whimsical with a touch of rock star.”
The show went off without a hitch and every chair was filled, meaning a nice donation for Haiti Partners to fund several students for the entire year.
“At our schools, kids get an interactive education, making the teachers and students really engaged and excited about education,” said Annan. “Our schools are teaching them how to grow up to be problem solvers so it has a ripple effect – transforming whole communities and affecting generations to come.”