Byline: Margo Ann Sullivan

Carla started at age six by making clothes for her stuffed animals. When her older sisters sewed and made dresses from Silhouette patterns. she collected the scraps and repurposed the fabric. In college at the University of Rhode Island she gravitated toward the Fashion, Merchandising, Textile and Design program. In between, she joined a girl band and made stage wear. Her business, Panaggio Designs, in Middletown, R.I., does all kinds of fashion, but currently, she’s mostly filling orders for competition bikinis and sportswear.

“Many of the dogs were housed in tiny cages covered with feces and lacking clean water and food. We also witnessed the heartbreaking consequences of this cruelty — carcasses and piles of bones strewn across the property.”

“It was immediately apparent to the adoption center clinic team that ‘Frank,’ as he has since come to be called, had suffered traumatic injury to his face, head and hips — most likely from a run-in with a fast-moving car,” Halpin said. “His right eye was so damaged it had to be surgically removed, along with a broken upper canine tooth. Frank had also suffered a broken jaw.”