When one person speaks up, they have the power to awaken the rest of the jungle. With this message as their tagline, Violets’ Giving Circle (VGC) hosted their 12th biennial event with the theme “Hear Me Roar” on March 16.
VGC is a philanthropic organization led by Violets’ Giving Circle Coordinator Amanda Lovrien and a board of 10 juniors and 10 seniors, including VGC Co-Chairs Channing ’25 and Jade ’25, who are also on The UltraViolet staff. The theme’s title, “Hear Me Roar,” is a reference to the chorus of Helen Reddy’s 1972 song, “I Am Woman.” The song is exemplary of VGC’s initiative to support and uplift women to fight for what they believe in.
This year’s event was held at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, a location that shares VGC’s intentions of promoting and celebrating Los Angeles. The museum is also in Exposition Park, right near the organizations that VGC has worked closely with in the past.
“The Natural History Museum is such an iconic location in LA, and VGC is all about representing LA and our community, especially now more than ever with the Los Angeles fires,” Channing said.
The event occurred in phases, beginning with a silent auction accompanied by an art gallery created by students. Then, guests moved to a theater space to learn about the VGC board and their grant partners right before two fashion shows ensued: one featuring student designers and models and another with past VGC grant partners. The partners had the opportunity to participate and keep clothes from sponsors afterward. Channing highlighted the importance of promoting student achievements.
“The reason we have students submit to the event and we showcase art, film, fashion and photography is because our events are all about celebrating education and youth education,” Channing said. “Showing the creativity of our youth at this time is really central to us.”
The VGC board gives students guidelines to design their art in relation to the theme of the event. For this event, student artists were encouraged to play with bold, vibrant colors, natural prints, unique textures and environmentally friendly materials to create a cohesive theme with the natural world theme. For example, using these parameters, designer Hana ’25 created a zebra print dress to illustrate the connections between femininity and nature.
“I chose the iconic black and white stripes of zebra print to represent how femininity is multi-faceted, and I strove to capture an expression of individuality in my dress, something I’ve witnessed in my community during my time at Marlborough,” Hana said.
VGC relies on donations of products and time to help the event run smoothly and to minimize the cost of the show to ensure they can raise as much as possible for those they support. This year, Tower 28 donated makeup for the models and Steve Madden and local designers like Natalie Martin sponsored the show. Furthermore, the student works were given awards by a panel of celebrity judges at the event. This year, the panel included “Suits” actress Sarah Rafferty, “Outer Banks” director Valerie Weiss, “A Handmaid’s Tale” actress Ever Carradine and renowned photographer Alan Silfen.
Since the organization’s inception, VGC has raised $440,000, and they will reach the half-a-million mark by next spring, the end of the 2025-26 granting year, to further their promotion of educating, uplifting and supporting the jungle of Los Angeles.
