The “In the RED Fashion Show” used the runway to engage students and the community alike in a cause rooted at ACU, raising more than $1,800 to combat sex trafficking Saturday night.

Whitney Puckett, senior advertising and public relations major from Melbourne, Fla., produced the fashion show and said more than 200 people attended.

“The greatest part was that the audience was a mix of everyone; overall it was mostly college students, but there were a lot of people from the community and there were a lot of different age ranges, from 3 to 90 years old,” Puckett said.

Lily Assaad, sophomore psychology and marketing major from Cairo, Egypt, attended the show, noticing its underlying purpose.

“I loved how they incorporated the heart behind the fashion show into the intermissions, into the speeches, into the videos; it was very clear what was going on,” Assaad said. “It’s not like they just had a sign that said, ‘By the way, this is for sex trafficking.’ It was clearly for the cause and I really appreciated that.”

The models, who all were ACU students, added their own flair to the runway and took advantage of the opportunity to try something different, Assaad said.

In the RED was hosted in the Windsor ballroom. Shawna McDanel, junior graphic design major from Early, described the show as having a classy yet simplistic décor, including red balloons at the head of the catwalk and strands of white lights woven on the outskirts of the room.

McDanel said the models, for the most part, wore elegant attire that had splashes of red incorporated throughout as well as some accessories from Eternal Threads, the organization through which the Red Thread Movement works.

McDanel represented the Movement at the show and said that the models all wore Red Thread bracelets, and she saw strong support from the audience.

“Even though people got Red Thread bracelets with their tickets, they still bought additional bracelets for their family and friends,” McDanel said.

The night featured 35 models and was orchestrated by a team of over 20 ACU students, Puckett said.

“I have never seen a team with such a great work ethic and that not only did their assigned task, but also did their own thing to help others,” Puckett said. “The fashion show was fun, but there was a whole campaign that led up to this. There was a full objective we wanted to make known not just to college students but to the entire Abilene community, and I feel like we accomplished that very well.”

Puckett said the team expects to continue to produce a fashion show for the community to enjoy in years to come and will continue using it to highlight outreaches.

“When I think about the show, I don’t think about the clothes; I think about how many people that came knowing they were supporting the Red Thread Movement,” Puckett said. “I look forward to seeing other causes that we support as well for future shows. “