take action project

Since this Take Action project had to do with women and society my group thought that there was no better way than to volunteer for "My Dreams Do Come True," which is a local organization ran by a women named Walethia who helps out all girls in the Genesee County area in need of a formal dress. Not only does she help out high school girls for high school dances but also local foundations such as the Whaley Center located right in Flint. Any girl who needs a dress, but cannot afford one can contact her by phone or e-mail to set up an appointment, meet her at the location that she has in Flint, and then choose up to 3 dresses to try on at a time. Once a girl has chosen her dress, she then can also choose out a pair of shoes, a jacket, or a piece of jewelry! The girls then get to take the dress home and keep it forever.. for absolutely no money at all. How cool is that?! The only limitation that she puts on the dresses is making sure that if the girl is a senior, that she is on the path to graduating, because grades are important to Walethia.

We started our project by preparing for the dress drives that we had set dates for. We used time to make flyers, make posters, and hang them up around campus (where we were allowed to). We were very surprised that during BOTH of our 2 hour and 3 hour drives we got 0 donations. It's a good thing that I had a few at my house, and Chichi found a few that we were able to donate so that we could set up a visit time Walethia.

We got to visit "My Dreams Do Come True," where Walethia has a decent size storage space for all of the dresses that she receives. When we walked in she was diligently working on sorting and separating the dresses as they were laid out on the floor as well as on the table. She took us into each room and we were able to see lines and lines of dresses hung up everywhere. Dresses on the walls, dresses on clothing racks, and shoes and jewelry all laid out perfectly in another room. One of the rooms had two dressing rooms set up with curtains so that girls could change in privacy and see what they looked like in the dress. In that same room there was probably about 10 large boxes full of dresses, piled up against the wall! We asked her what the most challenging part was about her job and she said that it is extremely frustrating when girls know that their dance is coming up, but do not make an appointment until a few days before they need it. She told us that she hates saying no, and she barely ever has to, but wishes that she was never put in those situations. When we asked her about her favorite part of the organization she had much more to talk about. She said that seeing the girls come in with their families, excited to pick out a dress, and seeing how happy they are and how special they feel is the best thing to her, and is why she continues to do what she has been doing for 4 years now. She told us about a young girl in high school who has cancer who came in with her family looking for a dress and probably tried on about twenty before she actually found one that she liked, but when she did her and her family were so pleased. But it's stories like these, that really make Walethia proud of what she does. She told us that she never thought that it would get to be such a large organization, and she was clearly running out of room to put the dresses as we saw when we walked in.

When we asked her why she does what she does she told us that is was because of her experience with prom. All of the peer pressures that she had to deal with; she feels like nobody else should have to go through that. She feels like prom should be one of the best nights of your life, worry free, stress free, just having fun with your high school friends. It shouldn't be troubling, trying to come up with the money to look nice for your date, or to buy food at a restaurant. She wanted to make prom affordable for every girl, and not just have it be an option. She told us a touching story about a counselor who contacted her because a high school girl was actually going to DROP OUT of school because she knew that she couldn't afford a prom dress and didn't want to go through the embarrassment. Imagine that! And imagine what one donation could do for another girl's self esteem. I obviously think that the organization is a wonderful idea. She told us that most of her donations come from girls like us (our group) who have old dresses from high school that they will never use again. Most of the dresses that we saw hanging up still even had the original price tags on them, which was very surprising. The dresses were gorgeous, and so were the shoes. It was just a wonderful place, and I can see how it would be so rewarding to be head of the organization.

I think that doing this project was very beneficial to my learning experience. I really enjoyed taking a hands on approach to the final exam and I really feel like it will make a difference in a young girls life. It opens your eyes to see that everyone maybe isn't as fortunate as the next person, but everyone deserves to feel special, and everyone deserves the right to a beautiful formal dress without taking away food on the table for them or their families. I never knew that a place like "My Dreams Do Come True," even existed until I heard it from this class. I'm amazed at people like Walethia, who can be so selfless and make such a difference in our community. I will definitely tell everybody that I know about this foundation and hopefully someday it will be the biggest dress shop in history.