Saturday was an exciting day for hundreds of young ladies who arrived at John J. Cairns Continuation High School in search of the perfect prom dress, and luckily for them they had more than 1,000 dresses to choose from.
The Vida de Oro Foundation, in partnership with the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce, drove all the way down from Sacramento to bring the dresses to the community of Lindsay.
“What we do is promote the arts to enhance our communities,” said Mina Perez, CEO and President of The Vida de Oro Foundation. “That’s a really important thing. We have classes for the arts in Sacramento. We not only show you how to paint, how to make jewelry, how to crotchet, but you get to take home those tools you were working with in the class. Otherwise, how can you keep going? Our foundation raises money throughout the year so that we can purchase those supplies and replenish them for the classes. No one is doing that, no non-profits are doing that, so that’s why we do it.”
But the dress giveaway on Saturday was free to the public, and it wasn’t strictly limited to young ladies in high school. The dress giveaway was open to all ladies searching for a new dress.
“Virginia (Loya) reached out to me and found out that we were doing this in Sacramento,” said Perez. “She asked how they could get us to come out here to Lindsay. I told her all she had to do was have a place, and I would bring all of the dresses to her and we can set it up.”
In a class room at John J. Cairns Continuation High School, makeshift racks had been put together by Doug DeLeo, of Doug DeLeo Welding, Inc., and Isidro Gutierrez. Hundreds of dresses in every shade of color imaginable hung neatly from the racks, and as the ladies began to browse through them, the metallic sound of plastic sliding against metal echoed through the room.
“The Lindsay Chamber of Commerce would like to thank Doug DeLeo from DeLeo Welding and Isidro Gutierrez for making and setting up the dress racks,” said Virginia Loya, President of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce. “They really helped us make this happen.”
Perez graciously thanked Lulu’s.com for donating all of the beautiful gowns at the giveaway. She also said the web-based company has even donated shoes. The company donated so many dresses Perez still has more than 1,500 dresses stored at her house in Sacramento.
When asked why she started doing these dress giveaways, Perez shared she never had the opportunity to get a brand new dress for special occasions while she was in high school, and that sometimes a brand new dress just works magic for one’s self confidence.
“Prom is an American tradition and we want to make sure that everyone is included in this process and program,” said Perez. “It’s a celebration of where you at in your life, in school, in your community, and we want you to keep going. Sometimes a brand new dress will give you that feeling of going somewhere and being someone special. Everyone should feel special.
“I want everyone to have what I didn’t have. I didn’t have the motivation, I didn’t have that nice dress, it was always hand-me-downs. My mother cleaned houses for a living and I remember wanting to go to prom with all of the rest of my classmates. I was a 3.8 GPA average in school, but I couldn’t go to school activities because my clothes were old and tattered, so I was not included. I missed out on opportunities to go further. I understand that it holds us all back, so if we are given the opportunity to help other human beings then we just do it. We are given the opportunity and we need to take that and say ‘I can do this.’ That’s my mission. I want others to keep going.”
https://www.recorderonline.com/news/dressing-up-in-lindsay-it-s-a-large-selection-of/article_03e69374-5720-11ea-a885-ebfcb9755153.html
2020-02-24 16:09:00Z
CBMihgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5yZWNvcmRlcm9ubGluZS5jb20vbmV3cy9kcmVzc2luZy11cC1pbi1saW5kc2F5LWl0LXMtYS1sYXJnZS1zZWxlY3Rpb24tb2YvYXJ0aWNsZV8wM2U2OTM3NC01NzIwLTExZWEtYTg4NS1lYmZjYjk3NTUxNTMuaHRtbNIBAA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Dressing up in Lindsay: It's a large selection of prom dresses - Porterville Recorder"
Post a Comment