Prom Wishes 2011

I am honored to be on the board of an amazing organization,  JWCL~ Junior Women's Club of Loudoun.  JWCL is an active group of women volunteers in Loudoun County.  We volunteer.  It's what we do.  And I absolutely love that. 

Prom Wishes is my favorite club event of the year and I was thrilled to be one of the co-chairs this year with my good friend Kathy.    At this event, local girls are invited to come and select a dress and accessories for prom, free of charge.  There is no catch, and you don't have to do anything to qualify.  All you have to do is show up.


 A recap of this year's event:

People from all around our area donated dresses.  Donations were accepted at all of the local public libraries.  The Marriott donated a conference room for the "store" and 3 guest rooms to use as dressing rooms. The Holiday Coalition donated racks for the dresses.   It's a joint effort, and it's amazing.  

 It started out like this.  Mass chaos, in our basement.  We started with a little stack of dresses and then they began piling up.

After a month of collecting dresses, it was almost time for the event.  There was a dress sorting party at our house 3 days before the event.  Kathy and I dressed up in some of the "alternative" dresses and had a little bit of fun with them!

After the sorting party was over, the dresses were somewhat more organized.

The night before, we loaded up all of the dresses and took them over to the Marriott.

 

The racks were brought over from Holiday Coalition (that's a story for another day)  and we were ready to set-up.  It was a lot of work, and a lot of fun.  

 

(Sorry about the butt shot, Kathy)

After a few hours of working together, we were ready!

The event started at 10am.  When Kathy and I showed up at 9am there were already 10 girls in line! 




Ready to go-  Becca and Trina at the registration table 

 
First shift volunteers

 Co-Chairs:

By 9:45am the event was in full swing.   I wish I could post a picture of what it looked like when the room was packed with girls but I didn't ask permission to put their pictures on my blog, so I better not.   You'll just have to trust me- it got pretty crazy in there.  : )

Around noon Kathy, her friend Lisa and I took a break to eat lunch.  We were sitting at a table in the hotel lobby when Becca, one of our club members, came up to us and said, "We are at 96- almost up to 100 girls."   We were so excited!  As much as Kathy and I wanted the event to be a success and run smoothly, what we wanted most is for a lot of girls to show up and find a dress that they loved.  You never know how many girls will show up.   It was a rainy, dreary day and it could have gone either way.  

As we sat there eating our lunch I kept an eye on the door so  I knew  what was coming when  Becca came back over.   She said,  "We just hit 100.  And it's a girl from one of the special education classes here in the county.  I thought you would want to know."    I looked over at the registration table, tears filling my eyes.  For so many reasons.

We finished our lunch and went back to work.  I set out to find the 100th girl, Cassandra, and her mom.  I found them by a rack of dresses and  went over to introduce myself.  I told them that I was one of the co-chairs and that I had a little girl with Down Syndrome.  I was so excited that she was the 100th girl to attend our event!

She found a dress!   : )

When I got back from checking on Cassandra, I got a little surprise.  Lila and her daddy stopped by to say hi!  

One by one, girl after girl found a dress.   110 lucky girls found dresses that day.  (That blows me away!)

Less than 24 hours later,  it was time to tear everything down again.
 

 With a little help from our unofficial "men's auxiliary", we got it all done.  : )

We had 120 girls at the event, so we exceeded our goal of 100. There were over 800 beautiful dresses for the girls to choose from. The leftover dresses were given to a local high school drama department, a non-profit drama group and a church in West Virginia that hosts an event for a community in need.   

A successful event indeed.

Time to celebrate with the second shift..................

I am honored to be part of such an inspiring group of women who are passionate about helping others and giving back.  I am also grateful to my awesome husband who not only supports my volunteer work but encourages me to do it. 

Lila update coming soon.................

Hugs~

Linda