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Fashion Show Benefits PACE Center

Jessica Bair/SUNCOAST

PASCO COMMISSIONER Ann Hildebrand, left, and Bonnie Howard were among the models how took part in a fashion show to raise funds for the Pasco PACE Center for Girls. Both women are on the board of directors of Pasco PACE, an alternative education program for young women.

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By Jessica  Bair | The Suncoast News

Published: October 10, 2007

SEVEN SPRINGS, Fla. - SEVEN SPRINGS, Fla. - Members of local Rotary chapters, plus many women from other local civic organizations, took time Saturday to attend the second annual PACE Center for Girls Fashion Show benefiting the Pasco center in New Port Richey.

The brunch event benefiting the Pasco PACE was held at Seven Springs Golf and Country Club.

The fundraiser also included live and silent auctions for various items such as sports memorabilia, fishing trips, spa and family travel packages.

PACE board members, volunteers and local dignitaries, including Pasco Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, modeled the latest fashions from the Stein Mart clothing store in Palm Harbor.

"It's really a terrific event to raise money for the center," said Sue Bedry, PACE special projects manager.

All the proceeds from the fashion show will go to directly support programs at PACE Pasco, Bedry said.

The PACE Center for Girls, which began in 1985, is a nonprofit organization that provides a nonresidential delinquency prevention program in 21 locations throughout the state.

PACE targets the individual needs of females, age 12 to 18, who are identified as dependent, truant, runaway, ungovernable, delinquent, or in need of academic skills, its Web site says.

"Our aim is to work with them and get them back into public schools," Bedry said Friday.

PACE is not just an all-girls school, she stressed, but a gender-specific program that focuses on the way girls learn, the issues they run into, and how to tackle them.

The at-risk girls attend small classes of five to 10 students per classroom. These classes provide an intensive curriculum of the basics, like English, reading, math, science and history, explains Bedry.

"We try to resolve whatever issue is making it hard for them to succeed in public school," she says of the teens, who are required to take life management elective classes.

PACE girls also receive individualized attention, counseling services, and participate in community service projects.

Most girls stay an average of nine months, Bedry notes.

The free program, which is year-round, allows students behind in high school course credits to catch up over the summer months.

After completing the program, many girls re-enter the public school system and obtain their diploma or GED. This prepares them to move on and attend college, get vocational training, join the military or enter the workforce, Bedry says.

PACE also monitors each girl's educational and personal progress for three years after completion of the program.

"We want to provide the tools to help them make healthy choices in life," she said.

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