NYIT students launch Winter Coat Drive with New York Cares; Campaign to Culminate Dec. 13th

Nov. 10, 2010 - PRLog -- New York, NY, November 10, 2010 – A class of undergraduate and graduate students studying Special Events Planning at New York Institute of Technology’s (www.nyit.edu) in Columbus Circle is putting to practice what their professor has been preaching.  Their goal in producing a cause-related event is to warm up the cold winter streets for New Yorkers who would otherwise go without winter coats.  
         The students have partnered with NYIT’s Office of Student Activities and Housing and Residential Life to launch a campus-wide coat drive the week of November 15th.  Coats will be collected through December 13th when the students will mark their accomplishment at “Wish Upon A Star,” a fashion show featuring the original designs of Asli Parlak, a student in the Special Events class and a designer of accessories for women (www.parlaque.com).
         The coats will be distributed by New York Cares (www.newyorkcares.org) to agencies that have requested assistance in acquiring coats for needy New Yorkers.  
As with many fashion shows produced to support a charitable cause, “Wish Upon A Star” will feature a celebrity.  Teodora “Tedi” Burgazlieva, currently a New York-based model and former “Miss Bulgaria,” appears in a student-produced promotional video for the event and she will make a guest appearance. See on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHjxsiZixU.


          There will also be a DJ and light refreshments.  Door prizes are being solicited by Poly Express LLC (www.polyexpress.com), a manufacturer and supplier of plastic packaging materials, based in Patterson, NJ is the event’s corporate sponsor.
“This event is being planned and produced primarily by my students with only some management oversight on my part,” said Rob Seitz, the class’ adjunct professor and an event planner in private practice in Westchester County.  “We have a very international group of students and this will be reflected at ‘Wish Upon A Star’.”
           “The decision to combine a sophisticated fashion show with a plain and simple coat drive stemmed from lively classroom discussions, competing concept pitches and a final class-wide vote,” explained Ailin Shvartsbart, a junior at NYIT and student spokesperson for the marketing and promotions team.  There are also fashion, technology, operations and management teams, each being responsible for a different aspect of producing the event.
           “How many times have you stepped out into the cold winter air only to feel an ice cold wind smack you in the face?  Luckily for most of us, we’ve got the proper clothes to protect us from New York’s cold winters.  Unfortunately, there are hundreds of people in our city who not only don’t have winter coats but who have no place to escape from the cold.  We’re hoping that our ‘Wish Upon A Star’ coat drive will add at least a bit of comfort to the lives of many New Yorkers this winter,” noted Shvartsbart.
            To donate a coat, buy tickets or become a sponsor of the event, send an e-mail to WUASNYIT@yahoo.com or connect on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wish-upon-a-Star/1689988997....