Girl gets dolled up for charity
Published: November 23, 2006
Strutting down the runway for the first time was a bit unnerving for Chloe Damon, but with her first fashion show behind her, she can’t wait until the next one.
At 7 years old, the Cohoctah Township girl is already a veteran of the catwalk.
Chloe was one of about 60 girls who recently participated in an American Girl fashion show in Novi put on by Friends of Suzette, to benefit Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit, the latter of which has a Royal Oak support center for cancer patients.
The girls put on four performances over the course of a weekend earlier this month.
“I felt better because I wasn’t nervous anymore,” said Chloe, who was the only Howell-area model in the show. “I wanted it to go on forever and ever and ever on every Saturday.”
The theme of the event was having the girls dress up like popular American Girl dolls, essentially taking on the personalities of the characters. Chloe was a “Bitty Twin,” complete with nightgown.
Chloe has one of the dolls and said she hasn’t been to the New York City, Chicago or Los Angeles flagship stores, but her mother, Jennifer Damon, added they might try to get to one in the future.
Jennifer Damon said her daughter might participate in the show again next year. This year was the show’s third, but it was Chloe’s first time participating in it.
“I liked, of course, the premise behind it of what they were raising money for,” Jennifer Damon said. “We had talked about what it was benefiting before she did the show.”
Those with Friends of Suzette estimated they raised at least $20,000 and that there were more than 1,100 attendees.
Friends of Suzette is a Detroit-area group that initially formed to raise money for Suzette Herskovitz, but, after her passing from breast cancer five years ago, has since carried on her name by raising funds for Gilda’s Club, with the goal of getting the art room named after her — which, according to group members, is set to happen.
Chloe got involved because one of the mothers of a fellow student at Challenger Elementary School is sister to one of the show’s organizers. Many girls had to go through an audition process.
But participating in the show was much more intensive than simply showing up for the event; participants had to go to several rehearsals that were each three hours long.
Even practice couldn’t calm Chloe’s nerves.
“It’s just all these people staring at me,” she said.
A narrator went over the background of each character and outfit and the finale featured all the girls coming out at once with sparkly wands.
“The very last part of the show … I really, really liked it,” Chloe said. “I enjoyed it a lot.”
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