LATTC Foundation Chair David Crippens showcased clothing created by a fashion and design student. (photo courtesy of John Wiley)

The Los Angeles Trade Technical College Foundation’s Dream Makers dinner honored community members representing a cross section of the Los Angeles community on Nov. 14.

The dinner honored community activist and philanthropist Darrell Brown, as well as Kitty Perkins, an alumna, the first black designer at Mattel and creator of the black Barbie. It also honored Nike by Design, Sergio Rascom of Laborers Local 300 and Stephen E. Smith of Hathaway Dinwiddie, all of whom provide internship, employment or apprenticeships for LATTC students. The celebration also showcased designs by students the school’s fashion design program.

“The Dream Makers dinner is our major fundraiser for the year and we are overwhelmed with generosity of our supporters,” said David Crippens, chair of the LATTC Foundation. “The event gave our friends and partners the opportunity to meet our acting president, Dr. Andrew Jones, experience some of the designs created by the students from our fashion design program and most importantly, allowed us the opportunity to articulate  the direction of the school’s future.  Community and corporate partnerships are a necessity for Trade Tech, as our mission is to get students positioned and placed in gainful employment. It is vital to our students’ success that they be trained using the most innovative and state-of-the-art technologies available and our honorees and partners help us to achieve this goal. The event brought in monies that allow us to provide emergency grants, scholarships, fund our Tools for the Trades program as well as other initiatives required to ensure that we meet the needs of our student body.”