Recycled fashion show, from trash to haute couture </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 8:56 PM on Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Recycled fashion show, from trash to haute couture

BY RYAN M. LONG

See Spotted photos of the event

One step closer to completing the Lexus and Scholastic EcoChallenge, the recycled fashion show accentuated the "reduce, reuse and recycle" message put forth by Homer's EcoLogical team with some modeling help from the Girl Scouts.

Taylor Ellison and Sydney Paulino were the masters of ceremony for the recycled fashion show and pointed out that anyone can turn what looks like trash to most people into functional and fun fashion.

Photo by Adam Bauer, Homer News

The EcoLogical team poses in their recycled fashions. From left to right are Adi Davis, Hannah Baird, Sydney Paulino, Taylor Ellison and Katherine Dolma.

"We hosted a fashion show to make recycling more known to the public. It was kind of random actually. We just thought it sounded like a good idea. We had about four meetings and some sewing time, so the planning was really simple. We want to help people realize that recycling can be fun and it doesn't have to be 'ugh, we have to sort the trash again!' It's fun to recycle," said Ellison.

"On November 6th we have to turn this in with a PowerPoint so we want to get some more projects done, but we don't have plans for anything big other than working on recycling at the hospital," said Ellison.

The Ecological team stands to win up to $30,000 through the EcoChallenge and wants to reinvest its winnings in recycling bins for Homer Middle School and a possible composting project. Through their work along the way members Ellison, Paulino, Hannah Baird, Adi Davis and Katherine Dolma have brought tin recycling to Homer and eliminated nonrecyclable trays at the middle school preventing the usage of 13,000 trays that would have otherwise ended up in the dump.

The girls are optimistic about their chances and encouraged by the changes they have already brought about in Homer. Except for Davis, who is a ninth-grade homeschooled student, the girls are eighth-graders at Homer Middle School.

See Spotted photos of the event