Greeks hit runway to raise money

Dance music blasted last night in Kimmel’s Rosenthal Pavilion as models strutted down a brightly lit catwalk models. The fashion world isn’t the typical scene for many of the models at this show — they were all members of Alpha Epsilon Phi and Delta Phi Epsilon at NYU, participating in the Runway for Life fashion show.

Advertised with the tagline “Fashion. Fights. Cancer.” Runway for Life was organized to help the two sororities raise $5,000 for Relay for Life, an annual, overnight fundraising program for the American Cancer Society. This year, Relay for Life will take place at 6:00 p.m. on April 18 in the Coles Sports Center.

“Instead of doing our typical fundraising events this year, we wanted to do something that got a lot more of the community involved,” said CAS junior Alx Bear, a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi who coordinated the event.

After some coaching from the NYU Modeling Club, 18 sorority members modeled a total of 34 looks at the Runway for Life, and members of the Zeta Beta Tau and Zeta Psi fraternities escorted the female models. A cappella group, Mass Transit, performed after the show.

“It’s something fun, something different to do, and it’s for a great cause,” said Delta Phi Epsilon president Emily Long, a senior in the College of Nursing. “It’s really great that the two sororities are doing it together because so often people think there’s rivalries between sororities, but AEPhi and us: We’re friends.”

Most of the audiences were NYU students involved in Greek life. “It was so much fun to see my sisters dressed up like real fashion models, almost unrecognizable,” Delta Phi Epsilon member and Steinhardt junior Emma Matusow said.

Fashion designer Csilla Somogyi, whose designs were part of the show, contributed items to the event’s silent auction and raffle and had some of her fashions available for purchase at the event with all of the proceeds going towards Relay for Life.

The attitude of the show’s fashions, she said, was “young and fearless and happy and single.” “The best thing is that no one fell,” Delta Phi Epsilon member and model Nicole Badke said.

Source: Runway Modeling-News