PCHS Turns Fashion Into Funds
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A very fashionable group of Pearl City High School students kicked some okole at the 2010 Hurley Walk the Walk National Championship, held this past summer in Huntington Beach, Calif., in tandem with the U.S. Open Surfing meet.
The stylish bunch beat out five other student teams to win the Converse “Punk Your Chucks” award and $2,000 for their school’s student activities funds. True to their Island roots, the Chargers’ winning shoe was decorated to resemble a bare foot in slippahs.
“It was insane stress because everything was so fast,” said geometry teacher Nikki Takai, who accompanied the 24 teens and four chaperones on the trip.
“Time management is one big issue, so planning was very important to learn,” she added. “I tried to be hands-off so they were able to understand how to prepare for a big event. They learned how to plan very quickly.”
The competition actually began in 2007 when Pearl City was among three schools approached by Hurley to participate in a five-minute fashion show competition at Pipeline Cafe.
The PCHS team beat out Mililani and Mid-Pac for a $5,000 prize and the chance to participate in the regionals in February, during which 30 schools from across the U.S. and Canada had to promote themselves through a series of “webisodes” posted at hurley.com.
Surfers to the site then voted for their favorites from each region - East, Southwest and Northwest/Canada/Hawaii - which determined the three finalists for the main event. In addition to Pearl City, Toms River East from New Jersey and Virginia Beach’s Kellam High, as well as last year’s Walk the Walk winner (Lincoln High from San Diego) and two wild cards, also from California, joined the pool for the national championship.
There, the teens pulled out all the stops to re-imagine and re-style the Hurley fall fashion line into their own. The designers then turned into models and showed off their hard work in a five-minute fashion stand-off in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 fans and celebrity judges Rob Machado, Paul Rodriguez, Lauren Conrad, Trevor Donavon, Camilla Alves and James Harden. Hosting the show were AnnaLynne McCord, Bobbe J Thompson and Sal Masekela.
The top prize went to Corona Del Mar High in L.A., but Takai said everybody came out a winner.
“Just by participating Hurley gave each school $5,000,” she said. “It was exciting, frustrating, just so many emotions. But the kids had a lot of fun.”
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