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Greetings!
This year's gown giveaway event was a huge success! Over 1,100 young women received beautiful gowns to wear to their proms. In addition, we were excited to help numerous Portland-area students choose gowns to wear for Rose Festival Princess selections. This would not have been possible without your generous donations, the hundreds of volunteers who helped organize and run the event and our business partners (listed on our website).
Thanks to all of you for helping these young women's prom (and Rose Festival) dreams come true. |
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4TH ANNUAL GIVEAWAY EVENT |
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A Year of Planning for a Weekend of Giving
On April 5th and 6th of this year, Abby's Closet held its fourth annual prom gown giveaway event at the Oregon Convention Center. This year was even bigger and better than before. Approximately 1,125 students from 152 area high schools attended, some driving over two hours to the Oregon Convention Center location. The first girls arrived before 6 a.m. to wait in line so they could find the perfect prom dress among the selection of 3,592 gowns.  Even with a wait of three or four hours on Saturday morning, the girls stayed in great spirits in the hallway and had fun winning raffle prizes, having makeup consultations and watching the countdown to their ticket entry number to the gown selection area. We were also impressed with all of the moms, aunts, foster mothers, girl friends and others who provided companionship, carpools and fashion opinions to the girls. We hope you all enjoyed the weekend as much as the Abby's Closet Board and volunteers did! |
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OUR VALUABLE VOLUNTEERS |
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Putting together and running an event the size of the Abby's Closet giveaway is a year 'round labor of love. There are so many who make our program possible:
23 businesses in 12 different towns or cities volunteered to be drop off sites for donated gowns.
35 high schools and universities conducted dress drives to collect gently used prom gowns from their students.
158 volunteers donated their time to Abby's Closet for set up, during the giveaway event, or for tear down. Over half the volunteers this year had helped us in previous years. They were amazing, and we would not have had the successful event we had without them!
Although men are not allowed in the prom gown area during the event, before and after the rooms were filled with brothers, husbands, fathers, boyfriends and just friends of board members and other volunteers. They assisted with the heavy lifting, assembling racks and moving huge boxes from one area to the other. It is a massive job to move over 3,000 heavy gowns from storage boxes to the racks and back again, and their behind-the-scenes help was invaluable.
Cosmetics for each girl at checkout were generously provided by Fred Meyer and Mary Kay Cosmetics. Earrings and necklaces were also provided by Fred Meyer for the girls to choose from once they had their beautiful dresses.
The National Charity League of Lake Oswego provided many hours helping us sort and label donated dresses before the event.
The Abby's Closet Board and our Student Advisory Board wish to extend our deepest gratitude to all those volunteers who made our giveaway event so successful.
Thank you! |
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APPLY TO BE ON THE STUDENT ADVISORY BOARD |
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| Thank You To This Year's Board!
 Are you a female high school or college student who would like to volunteer for a one-year term on the Abby's Closet Student Advisory Board? Are you interested in further developing your leadership and organizational skills? Would you like to learn more about how nonprofit organizations operate?
Abby's Closet is looking for 10 high school and college women who are eager to be part of our 2008-2009 Student Advisory Board. If you would like more information or would like to apply, please visit our website ( www.abbyscloset.org). Applications due by July 1. |
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MEDIA COVERAGE |
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"A girl in a dress stands before a mirror and sees her past and her future, the girl she is and the woman she will become."
We hope you all saw the Oregonian article about the Abby's Closet Giveaway written by Tom Hallman Jr.. This really captures the spirit and intent of our organization, so please take a few minutes to enjoy the article. Tom spent time at our event interviewing girls waiting in line, talking to volunteers and Board members, and he commented that as the father of two teenage daughters he really appreciated the efforts of Abby's Closet. Here is a link to the article:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1207536911156060.xml&coll=7&this
Please also be sure to see the fabulous article that Janet Filips wrote about our President and Co-Founder, Sally Egland, in the April edition of the "ULTIMATE NORTHWEST" magazine. Copies of these articles, along with TV news and radio clips can be found on our website. |
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HOW YOU CAN HELP |
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Although Abby's Closet is an all-volunteer organization, there is considerable expense to collecting and storing gowns, rental of the Oregon Convention Center, rental of a space to organize and tag gowns for two months prior to the event, printing, racks and other expenses. Most of our financial support comes from matching funds for Nike volunteer employees on the Board. But, as our Board becomes more diversified, these funds will not be enough to cover our expenses. You can help assure future years of Abby's Closet events by:
- Providing professional fund-raising advice (this is our biggest need!!)
- Contributing a tax-deductible cash donation which can be earmarked for operating expenses or to buy (at deep discount) formal gowns needed to improve the selection in any understocked sizes
- Producing or helping to pay for marketing materials to distribute to schools and community with information about dress drives and the dates of the event
- Donating a formal gown, either your own, your daughter's, or one you found on a sale or even a thrift store rack
- Volunteering to be a donation drop-off site (businesses only, please)
- Organizing a prom dress drive at your business, church, women's group, book club, bridal shower, community group, etc.
- Picking up gowns from donation sites and delivering them to a Board member (especially needed outside of the Portland metro area).
- Making wraps from damaged gowns or your own material
- Donating something that could be sold on e-bay
- Donating items that will be given to girls at the giveaway event (they receive one free cosmetic such as lipstick or nail polish and one free accessory such as jewelry, wrap, or evening bag at checkout to compliment their dress)
- Publicizing our need for gowns at your formal event, for those who might want a tax deductible way to give away their gown
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Volunteering before the event to help collect, sort and tag the dresses; assisting with event set up and tear down; or during the giveaway helping the wonderful, anxious, excited girls. A volunteer form will be posted on our web site a few months before the spring event. It can be tiring, but so very rewarding, to be part of this exciting weekend!
Thank you for your support of Abby's Closet. Your efforts will help make a high school girl's prom dreams come true.
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MESSAGES RECEIVED FROM STUDENTS (AND MOMS) |
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We have received numerous notes and emails from very happy young women and their parents and would like to share some with you. Enjoy!
FROM VERNONIA: "What an amazing experience for my daughter and myself. Everything was absolutely beautiful, I felt like we were at Macy's with personalized shoppers to help. It was the most outstanding experience...we are from Vernonia, and after the devastation to our town, we now feel like princesses! I...express my gratitude to all who volunteered, planned and dreamed for all those who would be the center of attention this year. My heartfelt thanks to all those who have spent endless hours planning and organizing this awesome event. We will see you next year as volunteers, as we would love to help with the Magic!!"
OTHER NOTES:
"Thank you so much for helping me find my perfect dress!"
"My prom is going to be amazing cuz of you"
"Oh my goodness! You people are amazing! I love you all so much!"
"I love this program. It totally rocks."
"Everyone was so nice and helpful. What a fun experience...it was better than shopping at most stores!"
"It's my senior year and I've never been to prom. Thank you so much, I am so excited!"
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Thank you so much for supporting Abby's Closet. Please be sure to share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions with us.
Sincerely,
Sally Egland, President
Abby's Closet |
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