The Notre Dame Best Buddies club, a club serving people with intellectual disabilities, will host a fashion show as part of Disabilities Awareness Month on Wednesday in Legends. “The event is meant to gain awareness for disabilities, but is also just a fun night,” President of Best Buddies and senior Kelly Keenan said. “Our buddies are people in South Bend who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the event will be a chance for them to get dressed up and have fun.” The fashion show is part of a yearly initiative formed several yearsw ago on campus by Notre Dame graduate Soeren Palumbo to end the use of the R-word. This year, Best Buddies is collaborating with Special Olympics and the Super Sibs club to hold the event, Keenan said.“The [fashion] show was a vision of another member of Best Buddies,” she said. “She had a friend on campus that is a Vineyard Vines representative, so they are supplying our men’s clothing. A boutique in Granger, Ind., called Sorella is supplying the women’s clothing, and we also have clothing from adidas and Dress Barn.” Keenan said planning the show has been an organizational process. “When we knew we wanted to hold a fashion show, we spoke to Legends because they had done fashion shows before, so they already had the whole event set up for us,” Keenan said. “There has also been a lot of communication to find clothing to borrow.” Keenan said she hopes the event will open the eyes of the Notre Dame community to disabilities. “The main thing we would love is to get a lot of people there and show them what disabilities awareness is really about,” Keenan said. “We want to show the Notre Dame community what this is all about and what our three clubs do.” In addition to the fashion show, members of the Best Buddies club will be in the LaFortune Student Center, North and South dining halls and the Hesburgh Library on Wednesday as part of a pledge campaign. “We will station ourselves around campus to gather pledges to end the hateful use of the R-word,” Keenan said. Keenan said an important component of the event is to make sure everyone has a good time. “Our buddies are so excited about walking the runway in awesome clothes,” Keenan said. “We want to make it a fun event for everyone involved.” Contact Katie McCarty at kmccart6@nd.edu
