Rayuana Aleyce will never forget growing up in Atlantic City’s Stanley Holmes Village.
“I always had a burning desire to have a better life,” she said, standing just feet away from her childhood home in the third village.
That’s why the model makes sure to return once a year to talk to the kids and give back.
After she was the winning model in Project Runway a few years ago, Dec. 23 was dubbed Rayuana Aleyce Day in Atlantic City — Ray Day for short.
But the fashion businesswoman and mom of a son said while the day may be named for her, it’s about the kids.
“To see her return back, it was a blessing,” said Hanifah Beyah, who has known Aleyce and her sister, Seng Bethea, “since they were babies.”
“People don’t come back,” Beyah said. “I tell the kids, ‘You can be whatever you want, but don’t forget where you came from.’ She didn’t forget. She knows who she is.”
The day usually is celebrated at the Boys and Girls Club. But because it fell on a Sunday, finding a venue was rough. So, Aleyce went to the village with 120 platters in her car and gift bags for the kids.
Everything was made by her. And the kids couldn’t wait to try the food.
“They didn’t even heat it up,” she said, laughing as she watched the kids sit down to eat at the benches in the same playground where she spent her childhood.
“I’m very proud of her,” said cousin Shaylyn Neal. “She kept her word. It’s important to come back.”
Neal came back too, Aleyce points out.
She went away to college and then returned home, where she is a teacher at Pennsylvania Avenue School.
“She’s one of my biggest role models,” Aleyce said of Neal.
This is just the beginning, Aleyce promises.
She’s hoping the day will garner more attention and more support to grow bigger. She would like to do a fashion show with local talent.
And, she is hoping to raise money for a home for kids that would keep them out of juvenile detention — and put them on the path to success.
“I want to help prepare them for real life and get them ready for college,” she said.
“I always knew she would be something, I just didn’t know what,” Beyah said. “And to see what she’s doing. I’m so glad she made it out.”
