Los Baños Ministries is less than a month away from a fashion show they’re hoping will set the pace for years to come. Committee members have been planning the first Fashion in Winterland Runway Show for about a year. And show director and producer Elvira Grimes said the event is close to being complete.</p><p>“We’re very excited and confident,” Grimes said. “Our models are ready to rip the runway.”</p><p>Recently, models, ages 3 to 19 years old, have been holding rehearsals to prepare for the upcoming show.</p><p>The event, held in the Los Baños High School multi-purpose room on Dec. 6 will feature nearly 50 students ages 3 to 19 years old from Los Baños and other Central Valley cities, as well as students from Sacramento, Salinas, Los Gatos and and other parts of the Bay Area.</p><p>Grimes said she travels to Fresno, Los Angeles and other California locations for runway shows, something she thought Los Baños should offer.</p><p>“I thought why should we have to travel when we have all this beauty and talent in Los Baños,” she said. “And in all those other shows, the children who are participating have to pay. This event is free for participants; all the clothes have been donated.”</p><p>The event will feature three different themes of styles of clothing, Grimes said; ‘From Boys to Men;’ ‘Turn Back the Hands of Time;’ and ‘Evening and Formal wear.’</p><p>“There will be an auction immediately following, of all the clothes modeled,” Grimes said.</p><p>The event is raising money with ticket purchases and auction funds partially for the Los Baños Arts Council and local cancer patient Caidyn Lee, Grimes said.</p><p>“Although we started out to only do a runway fashion show production, Fashion in Winterland has evolved into more than that,” Grimes stated in an e-mail to the Enterprise. “What we have done is taken the sophistication and simplicity of dressing and purified it. The message we want our younger generation to get is that it’s ok to be different and set apart; that it is cool to be elegant and fashionable; that it’s ok to not wear saggins or baggy clothes; it’s ok to wear a belt and to tuck your shirt; that it’s ok to not want to be like the Jones’, because you simply like who you are and whose you are.”</p><p>Working with Los Baños Ministries is Cristina Riberio of Be That Kid Productions out of San Jose, who is helping choreograph the nine different entrances models will have in the show; meaning, models will change nine times,” Grimes said.</p><p>“Fashion in Winterland will not only become an annual event, we have become a model management organization...to help our children build a solid foundation and advance the cause of child development through personal well being, and refinement of talent portfolio,” she said. “The models have such a natural talent and they’re so eager to learn. It’s like giving a kid a piece of candy; they just can’t get enough if it.”</p><p>Grimes said it’s been encouraging to watch many of the children work towards following a dream they’ve had of becoming a model.</p><p>“Some of them have chosen to make a career out of this,” she said. “This path will help them and I truly believe they will make it.</p><p>“Los Baños has some of the best children I have ever seen,” she said. “They’re so eager and excited for new learning. And they expressed that in the auditions. They are going to dazzle the community.”</p><p>A quote Grimes and committee members often share with their models by Ralph Waldo Emerson is one Grimes said she lives by wholeheartedly. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail... may you blaze a trail of glory.”</p><p>Tickets can be purchased at FashionInWinterland.com for $6 per seat. Tickets purchased at the door are $8 each.</p><p>Enterprise reporter Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com