A local designer, a top model, and a great cause. The better 2gether fashion show brought the Prescott community together to benefit a cause that is very close to Keegan Sweeney and her family.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Forget about Paris, Milan.
00:07 Today, the center of fashion is right here
00:10 in Prescott, Arizona at the Ruth Theater.
00:14 Ruth Street Theater later today, three o'clock.
00:16 There's gonna be an incredible fashion show
00:19 for an amazing cause.
00:20 Joanna, tell me about it.
00:21 - Madeline Stewart is coming from Brisbane, Australia.
00:25 She's coming to model our clothing.
00:27 She's coming because her voice is loud
00:29 and she's broken down barriers
00:30 and we're about to break down a barrier today.
00:32 Keegan, my daughter who's nonverbal,
00:34 has designed a hoodie.
00:35 It's Kelly Green, like her talker.
00:37 And for the first time ever,
00:38 talker symbols for nonverbal communicators
00:41 are gonna be included into clothing
00:42 and represented in a clothing line.
00:44 So the shirt you can expect to see from Madeline
00:47 looks like this.
00:49 You hit the word love, it's a mom and her child, and love.
00:52 And it's all about the love, right?
00:54 - And there's a lot of ways to communicate.
00:57 Some people communicate through their fashion,
00:59 through their style, like your daughter,
01:01 who's a fashion designer but is nonverbal.
01:03 And Madeline, who's modeling,
01:05 she might communicate in a different way
01:07 than what might be neurotypical.
01:09 - Exactly.
01:10 - And your clothes that you're gonna be modeling
01:14 and that your daughter Keegan designed,
01:15 some of those are very special
01:17 in as much as the feel and the texture are common.
01:19 - Yes, that's something that isn't normal also.
01:22 Inside the pockets is a texture.
01:24 So when kids are told, "Put your fingers in your pocket,"
01:27 there's something for you to fidget with.
01:28 (laughs)
01:29 - It's like a lot.
01:30 - You've never seen it before, right?
01:31 - Yeah, it's totally original.
01:34 - And it's a first, and Maddie's all about those firsts.
01:36 - Well, this is a family affair for you.
01:38 Your daughter Keegan has designed the clothes,
01:40 and a couple of your boys are gonna be here as well.
01:44 I'm gonna meet Keegan and her big brother, Zach.
01:49 Keegan, thank you so much for having us.
01:51 Zach, thank you for helping.
01:52 This is your talker, I know.
01:54 Are you excited for today,
01:56 for all these people to see your fashions?
01:58 - Are you excited?
02:00 - Love.
02:03 - Love.
02:04 - Love.
02:06 Love.
02:07 Well, I know that you love fashion,
02:08 and you love big brother.
02:10 This is kind of adorable.
02:12 I wish my kids would be this close.
02:15 Tell me about your sister and how she expresses herself.
02:18 - So Keegan expresses herself
02:19 through her communication device,
02:21 and her communication device helps her
02:23 be able to talk to other people.
02:24 One reason why Keegan right now is a little nervous
02:26 is because she's afraid that no one
02:28 really understands her voice quite yet,
02:30 because it's such a unique voice.
02:31 It's like if you spoke Mandarin
02:33 in an English-speaking country.
02:35 You're gonna be a little nervous
02:36 if people really understand what you're gonna be saying.
02:39 And so with Keegan, she wants to be able
02:41 to take her voice and spread it to everybody,
02:43 because we wanna help families with our non-profit.
02:45 That's why this show is very important with us,
02:47 because the proceeds of that money that we're gonna get,
02:50 it's gonna help us be able to spread the message
02:52 that hey, we want everyone to be able to communicate,
02:55 and hey, families, don't be shy.
02:57 You can take your kiddo out.
02:58 They can do a lot of amazing things, like Miss Keegan here,
03:01 being able to be a fashion designer.
03:03 And so that's what's really important with us.
03:04 - Thank you so much, Zach,
03:06 and I know this show raises money for a good cause.
03:09 Can you talk about that for people
03:10 who are thinking about coming down here
03:12 at three o'clock today to the Ruth Street Theater?
03:15 This is the cause that you're helping.
03:17 - Yeah, this cause is what's gonna help.
03:18 It's gonna be able to spread AAC devices,
03:20 which is Assisted Alternative Communication,
03:23 and the format they come into is a communication board,
03:25 which is just the front screen like mom was showing you
03:28 when she was talking with Miss Teresa.
03:29 And that is just basically the starting point
03:32 for communicating, and then it grows into what Keegan has,
03:34 which is her AAC device, her Accent 1000,
03:37 which is really amazing.
03:39 - Thank you so much.
03:39 You said that so well.
03:41 What do you think you want people to come away with
03:44 in terms of what they don't understand
03:47 about folks like your sister
03:48 who communicate through a talker?
03:50 - I think the big thing that we want to teach people
03:53 is to listen, because at the end of the day,
03:55 listening is the most important.
03:56 So like, for instance, we're supposed to have weather.
03:58 Let's say it's snowing outside,
03:59 and the person, you ask them,
04:00 "Hey, what's the weather like?"
04:02 They say, "White."
04:04 You gotta really slow down in your brain and think,
04:06 "Okay, white, what's white?
04:07 "White snow."
04:08 "Oh, you're saying that it's snowing outside."
04:10 And then they might go into saying,
04:11 "Yes, that's what they mean with the weather."
04:13 It's the big thing, it's just the biggest thing
04:15 we wanna teach is for people just to listen
04:17 to every single unique voice,
04:18 'cause that's the most important at the end of the day.
04:20 - That's so beautiful, Joanna.
04:22 Thank you for having us,
04:24 and I can't wait for everyone to see
04:26 these amazing pieces of apparel.
04:30 Keegan, thank you so much, and congratulations,
04:32 and I guess everyone's just gonna have to strike
04:33 a fashion pose, ready?
04:35 Go.
04:36 (upbeat music)
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