Just Through Central Park, a Different Gala Celebrates Students’ First Steps

Just a 10-minute walk from the flashing cameras and swarms of crowds outside the Met Gala last night, a very different sort of gala was taking place at the Central Park Boathouse. It was the inaugural iBrain Gala, a runway show dedicated to celebrating the nonverbal and physically disabled students who attend the iBrain school in Brooklyn and on the Upper East Side.

On a long red carpet, teenage students wearing tuxedos, glittering spring dresses and superhero costumes were helped out of their wheelchairs and into a pediatric metal exoskeleton that allowed them to walk. Their friends, family and teachers cheered them on with applause. Then they made their way to a small runway stage, where they basked in more applause.