Fashion forward for scholarships

Published 8:00 am Thursday, April 17, 2014

Geometric shapes, bright colors and bold prints were the “in” trends featured at the 7th annual LadyBUGS Fashion Show.

This year the ladies believing, understanding, guiding and serving decided to go Greek for their fashion show theme.

Featuring fashions from The Pants Store, Cato, Loft, Chico’s and accessories provided by Charming Charlie, the Leeds/Moody area and friends throughout St. Clair County will be all dolled up with numerous places to go.

Calling on their members to serve as models during the fashion show, Dawn Moore with Land Title Company, Robbin Franklin and Tracy Marcus, Leeds BancorpSouth branch manager worked the stage as they turned it into their own runway.

“I was extremely nervous “modeling” for the first time, but all the ladies smiling faces helped ease my nervousness, a little,” said Marcus. 

As for what being a part of LadyBUGS means to her she said, “To me Ladybugs is the most important group I’m involved in. Nothing could be more important than serving as a role model for these young ladies and doing what we can to help them further their education.”

This group of business professional women serves the Leeds/Moody area by awarding two Leeds senior high school girls and two Moody senior high school girls with scholarships.

The annual fashion show serves as the organization’s primary fundraiser, but this year the members voted on “sprinkling” in other fundraising events throughout the year as well.

“The 7th Annual LadyBUGS fashion show proved to be an excellent event like so many years before. It was exciting to see the combination of veteran attendees along with so many new faces this year,” said LadyBUGS Vice President Donna Coates. “There is no greater feeling of accomplishment than to do a good deed for your neighbor. This event allowed us to do just that.” 

Traditionally LadyBUGS has awarded $500 scholarships per winner. The 2014 recipients will be the first to receive $1,000 each through the LadyBUGS scholarships.

“This event provides the means for our club to offer scholarships to senior girls from Leeds and Moody High Schools.  It was such a win/win event with the $20 ticket purchase, our guests received a delicious meal from The Yellow Bicycle to cap off our Greek themed event and 100 percent of the proceeds funded our scholarship fund,” Coates said. 

Not only were the ladies who attended this year’s show wowed by the looks presented before them, accomplished jazz musician and sensational saxophonist Jeff Lopez provided musical entertainment, while businesses (just to name a few) such as NewBath in Moody, The Outlet Shops of Grand River in Leeds and Vintage Hip in Springville donated door prizes to the cause.

The fashion show committee consisting of LadyBUGS members Sonja Dennen, Candy Crenshaw and Nancy Johnson received praise for their hard word from those who attended.

Statements like, “This was great, I loved the clothes and this was so much fun,” were over heard as the crowd said their goodbyes. 

Held at Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Leeds, the entire LadyBUGS membership sends a huge thank you to the Cedar Grove family for continuing to support the mission of LadyBUGS.

“To quote an amazing woman from Alabama, ‘alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,’ Helen Keller speaks directly to our mission,” said Coates. 

The LadyBUGS scholarships’ deadline is April 17th and all Leeds/Moody senior girls interested in applying should turn their applications into their school counselors.

Scholarship interviews will be conducted Tuesday, April 22nd with a panel of outside judges.

Recipients are notified shortly there after and presented with the scholarship at their respective school’s awards days.

Evaluated on need, grades, extracurricular activities and community involvement, the LadyBUGS scholarships are awarded to the best well rounded young ladies Leeds and Moody High Schools have in and out of their classrooms.

Honored to have the opportunity to play a part in furthering these young ladies educations the LadyBUGS June meeting is dedicated to the scholarship winners.

At this luncheon these young ladies tell the members their future plans for college, career and beyond.

The girls’ moms are also invited to convey their pride about their daughters.

Grateful for the community’s support, which enables this club to help these girls, the LadyBUGS are humbled as they convey their gratitude.

 “Through the talents and efforts of the local businesses that supported us this year and our team of members that worked so hard, LadyBUGS put together a fantastic event,” said Coates. “I am so proud to be a part of this unique network of business and professional women that have a goal to put our community first and we’re excited to welcome new members that were moved to join our club after attending our event.”

Enjoying an afternoon of fashion, food and fun fulfills the LadyBUGS mission for giving the gift of continued education.

The entire LadyBUGS’ membership extends a big thank you to all those who attended and donated to this worthy cause. Because of this generous community wide support the LadyBUGS fashion show was a sell out event. 

Thanks to a stellar turn out lives will be changed because of each one of you.

Reinforcing the well known phrase, “knowledge is power,” these young ladies have the chance to move forward with their education and LadyBUGS makes sure they’re doing so in full fashion.