Green fashion show raises money for charity

The event featured clothes from Factory Green.

By Angela Case

Published Nov. 6, 2009

The Go Go Green Fashion Show transformed Ingredient into a runway Thursday evening. The event, a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri, included a silent auction, door prizes, dinner and a runway show featuring fashions by Factory Green, a student-founded company.

MU graduate Elizabeth King organized the event with help from her mother Barb King, who is on the board of directors for the Ronald McDonald House.

The event raised money for a new Ronald McDonald House in Columbia. Barb King said because the Children's Hospital is being moved from MU to the Columbia Regional Hospital, the charity wants to build another "bigger and better" house closer to the new location. Barb King said the old Ronald McDonald house, which is on MU property, would be donated back to the university.

Barb King said though the Ronald McDonald House has held many events to raise funds for the new facility, Go Go Green is the first event she has organized since joining the board of directors in January. Barb and Elizabeth King said they aimed to raise $2,000 from the event.

The festivities included a silent auction featuring items such as jewelry, artwork and a bulletin board made of recycled wine corks. Barb King said various people involved with the event donated the items, which were all handmade from organic materials.

"Someone I've never even met donated a few items," Barb King said.

The runway show featured T-shirts and accessories by Factory Green, a company owned by MU students Jack Short and Daniel Lyons. Elizabeth King, who has freelance designed for Factory Green and is friends with the company's owners, said she and her mom, Barbara, came up with the fashion show idea together.

"They encourage board members to do fundraisers, so we decided to do a fashion show fundraiser," she said.

Short said Factory Green likes to get involved in charitable causes as much as possible. The company sponsored a fashion show benefiting the Boys and Girls Club last year, and a percentage of the company's profits are donated to the United Nations Water For Life Fund.

Short, who is a medical student, said the Ronald McDonald House is a very worthwhile cause.

"I see what they do at the University Hospital, and I want to support them however we can," he said.

All of Factory Green's T-shirts are made of 100 percent organic cotton in fair trade factories that run solely on wind and solar power. Many of their accessories are made from recycled materials. Among the items featured in the fashion show were messenger bags made from recycled billboards, a clutch made from recycled candy wrappers and a "Mizzou Fo Life" T-shirt designed exclusively for the University Bookstore.

Short said almost all of the company's products are freelance designed by students.

"I'm about as creative as a cinder block, so I try to leave the designing to the experts," Short said.

Passes to the fashion event, which cost $20 each, included meals provided by Ingredient "at a really low cost," Elizabeth King said.

"The main dish was turkey-apple brie wraps, which are my favorite thing here, so that's how we made that decision," she said.

Kim Poeppe, an Iowa resident who was in Columbia to visit her son, Jared Poeppe, a model in the show, said she enjoyed the meal and the event.

"It was a nice show," she said. "The Ronald McDonald House is a very worthwhile cause. It benefits lots of families."