PROUD Girls Teams With Old Navy to Benefit Teens in Need

Old Navy in Deer Park was taken over Sunday afternoon for a fashion show to benefit teenage girls living in foster care by PROUD Girls, a non-profit community service group consisting of high school girls aimed to help people unable to fulfill a variety of needs.

"It took a lot of organization," said event co-organizer Lindsay Selman. "We had the idea and we first contacted them [Old Navy], then we found Madonna Heights, which is for underprivileged girls who have been abused or neglected and we kind of connected, we came together, we came and picked out all the outfits for the girls."

The idea of having a benefit fashion show is nothing new to the girls.

"This is our third fashion show, we've done it twice before, this one is probably the best one yet," said PROUD Girls member Stephanie Auerbach.

PROUD Girls is a nationwide organization consisting of many teams of girls who provide assistance to those in need in their respective communities. The team that took over Old Navy in Deer Park was the Smithtown Dozen Divas, of which Smithtown Patch high school student columnist Justine DeRosa is a member.

The girls of the Smithtown Dozen Divas took to the runway in Old Navy at noon and less than an hour later had two bins of clothing filled to the top behind the cash registers and empty three racks of fundraiser-specific clothes depleted.

"I thought it went really well, all the girls did a great job and this was our best one yet," Auerbach said.

The clothing from the fashion show will go to girls at Madonna Heights, the Dix Hills location under the SCO Family of Services whose aim is to help people facing poverty, neglect, abuse, or developmental and mental challenges and more throughout New York.

"It was cool because they're just like us and we're all the same, they were very thankful for what we did," Auerbach said.

"I'm really happy to help these girls," said event co-organizer Kaitlin Clancy. "We got to meet them last week and they were really nice."

"They're great girls, it feels good because anyone could be in the spot that they're in so it feels really good to help them," Selman said. "Anything that they're going through was probably not their fault and it can be prevented so we want to help them get through it and benefit them in any way we can."

The Smithtown Dozen Divas have been busy as of late as last week the girls made one thousand bag lunches for a local soup kitchen. Their charitable work for the holidays is not over as the girls are currently planning a holiday party for a soon-to-be-determined organization.

"We're planning on having a Christmas party with Madonna Heights or another orphanage we used, Little Flower, which we have contacts with," Auerbach said.