Tufts China Care Club cancels LUX spring fashion show

Tufts China Care Club, a student-run club supporting foster care in China through the One Sky Foundation, the Family Village Program and the China Care Home, will not be holding its annual LUX Charity Fashion Show this April, according to Tufts China Care Club Fundraising Co-Chair Ada Huang, a sophomore. It is the first time in 10 years that this event has been canceled, according to Co-President Julia Bell, a senior.

LUX was previously held every spring in Cohen Auditorium and featured Tufts students modeling various clothing brands, according to Bell. The event also served as one of Tufts China Care Club’s largest fundraising events, according to Huang.

“LUX was our main spring fundraising event in the past as a charity fashion show with sponsors from the shops along Newbury Street,” said Huang.

The fashion show generated awareness for the club, and all proceeds were donated to the OneSky Foundation, according to Tufts China Care social chair Hannah Shaich, a junior.

“We have raised thousands of dollars for the OneSky Foundation and have changed the lives of many children in the Chinese foster care system,” Co-Presidents Bell and Michelle Luo, a junior, said in a statement on Facebook last November. “With the funds provided by LUX, we have funded critical surgeries and placed children into permanent and loving foster families.”

At the beginning of this academic year, however, members of Tufts China Care Club decided against continuing the annual fashion show, according to Bell.

Shaich explained the reason for the change.

“This change was [decided] because the club felt that LUX, although well known, was incredibly difficult to organize and set up,” Shaich told the Daily in an electronic message. “A lot of work and connections as well as personal investment of time would have to be done, and the club didn’t want to put that strain on someone.”

The decision to retire this event also came after criticism from the Tufts community regarding the model selection process for the fashion show, according to Huang.

“We decided to pause LUX for this year as we received some backlash after our show last spring because we are reconsidering the values [Tufts China Care] holds and how they align with LUX,” Huang told the Daily in an electronic message.

“While we understood that the selection process for models would draw backlash, it far surpassed the amount of effort our LUX directors and presidents of [Tufts China Care Club] put in to make LUX a good show," Huang said.

Moving forward, the club will focus its energy on creating a new event more in line with their goals, according to Bell.

“We are currently in the process of creating a new event for next spring to replace LUX both in scale and in fundraising capacity, and we hope that this event will more closely reflect our efforts and ideals as a group and involve both Tufts and the Medford/Somerville community,” Bell told the Daily in an email.

Tufts China Care Club hopes to increase awareness of its mission to support children in the Chinese foster care system both within the Tufts community and the greater Boston area, according to the statement from Bell and Luo.

“Our main goals as a group [are] to create a friendly environment and presence on campus while also supporting young orphans who may not get the opportunity to have the benefits of love and support that come from a family,” Shaich said.

This year, students can continue supporting Tufts China Care by attending smaller fundraising events, according to Shaich.

“Tufts China Care currently sponsors a family in Tianjin through the Loving Family program of OneSky, and through bubble tea sales, educational events and other means of fundraising, we hope to continue supporting this program financially and to spread awareness of our cause on the Tufts campus and the broader Boston community,” Bell said.