Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart

Afghan Coalition Fashion Show

Girls from Sacred Heart Academy joined girls from Nardin, Mount Mercy, and Buffalo Seminary to present the Western NY Girls' Coalition 2nd Annual Fashion Show to raise funds for building a school for girls in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Read below about the successful event in the article which was published on April 9th in the NeXt magazine. Correspondent Jennifer Werbitsky, a junior at Nardin, wrote this report.

Sacred Heart Academy students who participated in the Fashion Show: Karen Schuster (junior), Maggie Duggan (senior), Michelle Nowacki (sophomore), Jenn Ziemba (junior), and Rachel Cruz (senior)

Sacred Heart Academy students who participated in the Fashion Show: Abby Robinson (junior), Janine Myszka (senior), Natalie Wasilewski (senior), Anna Szczepanski (freshwoman), Kim Patterson (senior), and Anna Hoffmann (senior)

NeXt Article: Girls' Coalition Fashion Show Raises Money for Afghan Schools

On just one lazy Sunday afternoon, girls representing Nardin, Mount Mercy, Buffalo Seminary, and Sacred Heart joined together through the Western New York Girls Schools’ Coalition to present their successful second annual fashion show. Both models and the club’s members, who had organized everything from free snacks to a multi-room catwalk, spent hours at the International Institute of Buffalo setting up every detail. All the frenzied activity that accompanies fashion shows and fundraisers was present in the name of the Afghanistan coalition’s main goal: Education. The event not only raised money through the admission charge and sale of T-shirts and gift baskets, but spread awareness about the achievements of the Coalition so far and its goals for the future.

The WNY Girls Schools’ Coalition wishes to encourage female education, which was eliminated during the Taliban’s reign in Afghanistan. So far, the Coalition has raised more than $30,000 and has built the Zarghuna Middle School for girls in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Even though the focus has been on the construction of girls’ schools, the government will often use the schools for double sessions, and boys will use these buildings as well. However, because of cultural beliefs and traditions, Afghan girls have a greater need for help that will allow them the opportunity to become educated.

“In many countries overseas, boys are more encouraged to pursue education than girls,” said Tony Agnello, the Orchard Park High School teacher who is adviser of the Educational Outreach program, which also raises money to build schools in Afghanistan and has cooperated with the coalition. “It is a documented fact that in Afghanistan, boys are more culturally encouraged to go to school.”

Becca Dearlove and Erin Collins of Nardin showed up in the same shade of blue. An original T-shirt design sold at the benefit.

At intermission, Agnello spoke of his goals to further connect Western New York and Afghanistan. These include “completing the Outreach circle,” meaning that Western New York has been active building schools in Afghanistan, but now it would perfectly complement these projects to give young women from Afghanistan the opportunity to travel here.

Agnello brought with him an Afghan exchange student, Asma Arab, who has been living with a local host family since last August. Fifty other students from Afghanistan will be coming to live all over the United States in the next few months, but only a handful of them have been placed. Host families are proving hard to find, Agnello said.

“The way they think [in Afghanistan] is different from the way they think over here,” Asma Arab said during the fashion show intermission. “The girls are mostly encouraged to stay and work in the house.”

New this year was the sale of Paix T-shirts (designed by Nardin sophomores Lauren Hoffman and Alex Korchynski and Buffalo Seminary sophomore Julia Papiernik), a Chinese raffle (with prize baskets from local businesses), and a greater representation of fashion from multiple local retailers.

Local stores which contributed clothing for modeling included TTNY, Maram’s, Anna Grace, Chic Boutique, Ragamuffins, LU Modern Classics, Firebrand, and Sweet & Dirty.