Cool fashion, hot music, awesome art will aid Rwandan orphans

The once-black jeans are a shade or two lighter and have that popular stonewashed look. The pockets are trimmed with triangular silver studs. The back of a white, once-blue denim jacket sparkles with a silver-studded heart while more silver studs and small silver tassels adorn front pockets.

The two clothing items, designed by La Sierra University biology major, art minor, fashion design hobbyist Meagan Miller resonate 'cool.' They are among eight or nine denim outfits she is creating as part of a reality-television-like student fashion show that will be held April 18, at 7 p.m. at La Sierra University's Hole Memorial Auditorium. The show, which will have a $5 cover charge, is part of a multi-event fundraising effort taking place from 4 - 10 p.m. called REVO. The slate of activities includes concerts, an art show and auction, food, t-shirts and other items for sale. Organizers are seeking a $10 donation per person for the day's events.

REVO aims to raise money for the Gakoni Orphanage in Rwanda. La Sierra alumna Michelle Jacobsen and student Emily Gifford are currently teaching English at the orphanage that houses about 75 children. Reach International Inc. in Berrien Springs, Mich. operates the facility.

REVO, based in Hilo, Hawaii, is a movement that helps individuals find ways of raising money for their charitable causes. Its motto is “start a revolution, start with love.” REVO has branches in Denver, Guam, Baton Rouge, Anchorage, New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, San Diego, Canada, Pacific Union College and Andrews University.

La Sierra's REVO branch founder Jaylene Chung, a graduate business student, arrived on campus last fall from Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif. She learned about REVO while a PUC student.

Chung's former PUC colleagues are also holding a REVO fundraiser on April 18 for a different charity and a friendly competition is underway to see which group can raise the most money for their cause, she said. She hopes the REVO fundraiser will become an annual event. “We're already planning for next year,” said Chung. See a video about REVO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPjJD2wx2Gw. La Sierra's REVO fundraiser will feature the La Sierra University Big Band, reggae band Diversity Rising, Mexican-American folk musicians Sal and Isela and artist Mike Isberto. Performances will begin at 4 p.m. on Founders' Green. An art show and auction will also take place with art pieces supplied by about 40 students, faculty members and Southern California artists. Art works will include a ceramic creation, a brightly painted and re-designed table, print photography, drawings and other media.

Rebecca Waring-Crane, a pre-foundational composition and freshman composition instructor, is submitting the re-designed round breakfast table, an item she picked up for $10 at a thrift sale. The table is painted in bright shades of greens and blues with black, white and fuchsia accents, ornamented with colored polka dots, blue diamond shapes and green swirls. Under the glass top a mesmerizing pattern of old European maps, applied with decoupage and painted over in some areas, reveals former world orders, including Italy's old Vatican States. Waring-Crane, who operates her own furniture re-fashioning business called Second Chance Designs, hunts for used, older furniture at thrift stores and takes on commissioned furniture re-design projects.

She is happy to auction her table at REVO to help the Gakoni orphanage, Waring-Crane said. She and her husband, Ken Crane, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology, served in areas of Africa in the past and understand the importance of funds for obtaining necessities, she said.

For La Sierra's REVO fashion show, students and faculty members will jettison their daily identities to play fashion runway models for the student designers. Clothing creations run the gamut from modern floral to Afro-centric-urban to Miller's self-described “destroyed denim, glitzy rocker look.”

The fashion designers each have a $75 budget to buy material to make clothes or to buy clothes for re-designing. Chung and other REVO chapter members supplied the designers' money pool.

Miller is considering naming her clothing line “Diamonds in the Rough,” she said. She used her $75 allotment to buy denim items from thrift stores, including the jean jacket which she bought for $8, and a handheld mini drill she uses with a sandpaper tip to make denim fabric look worn. She also bought the triangular studs on line from Malaysia. She bought a faux leather jacket for $5 and plans to embellish it with gold beads and pieces.

The biology/pre-med major bleached the blue jacket to white and sprayed bleach on the black jeans to create faded areas. Throughout her denim pieces she is using wing art, metallic spray and hand-stitched beadwork. She also hand-stitched a cursive 'm' in metal-coated silver thread, her design logo, on the jacket and jeans.

 “It's a lot of hard work but it's worth it,” said Miller said, holding the transformed white jean jacket and denim pants. “It's what I'd like to do with my time anyway.”

Miller's fashion models include her sister and boy friend Alberdi De La Fuente, a La Sierra graphic design/architecture major. They are supplying Miller with pairs of jeans that she can fade, dye, rip or decorate as she pleases. She is designing jackets and tops for the jeans.

De La Fuente expressed confidence in Miller's abilities. “It's her thing. She'll make us look good,” he said with a smile.

PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)