Lifestyles

Yonka Clark, the wife of first-year Steelers safety Ryan Clark, is dressing up her entire family, including her husband and 2-year-old daughter, for an elegant charity fashion show.

The football player will appear onstage three times -- in his NFL jersey and uniform, in Reebok casual clothing and in an evening suit -- at Steelers Style 2006, which will be held in Downtown on Thursday. Meanwhile, Yonka Clark and the three Clark children -- Jaden, 7, Jordan, 5 and Loghan, 2 -- each will model casual Reebok clothes and fancier eveningwear.

Loghan probably will wear a fluffy little dress and toddle down the catwalk, her mother says.

"Don't underestimate her; she's a firecracker," says Yonka Clark, 26, whose husband also has played for the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants.

The Clark family will be among the more than 35 Steelers families participating in Steelers Style 2006, an annual dinner and fashion show that raises funds for the Cancer Caring Center in Bloomfield and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in Oakland.

Participating players include wide receiver Hines Ward and cornerback Deshea Townsend. The show also includes a few professional female models, entertainment between acts by the University of Pittsburgh dance team, and of course, the Steelers' wives and kids.

"The audience lives to see the players, but the kids steal the show -- they're so adorable," says Rebecca Whitlinger. She is the executive director of the Cancer Caring Center, which has been a Steelers Style beneficiary for more than 15 years.

Last year, the sold-out event drew 900 people, and it looks like the ballroom will be packed full again this year, Greta Rooney says. She is co-chairing the event with her husband, Steelers owner Art Rooney.

"My husband likes to have events where the players are really involved with the community," she says. "It's a good way to get the players out and involved in a fun way with the community. The people seem really receptive to it."

As for the players? Those big, tough athletes might not seem like fashion-show types, but they love participating, Rooney says. The players, along with their wives and kids, get to choose their own outfits, provided by Macy's and Reebok, and choose the songs they strut to on the runway.

"Once they get there and hear the music ... they get into it," Rooney says. "They really are comfortable; they do a beautiful job."

Steelers Style -- along with the annual Taste of the Steelers event, which took place Nov. 10 -- should gross a combined total of about $600,000 this year, officials say. Last year, the two events grossed more than $533,000 combined.

A significant portion is donated to the Starzl Institute and the Cancer Caring Center, which has been able to add several new support group locations to its community outreach efforts because of the show proceeds, Whitlinger says. "We are overwhelmed by the generosity and the dedication ... everyone works so hard to make the production extraordinarily successful."

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