I wasnt sure what to expect going into today - but it was basically how I imagined it to be, but a little more hectic.
The Bell Of The Ball is an event put together by three organizations: Girls Inc, Women Helping Women and Orangewood Childrens Foundation. I volunteered through Orangewood. It is an event for underprivileged and foster teenage girls. They come and go through four sessions during the day. Three workshops and the fourth session they get to pick a dress, shoes, accessories and a purse for prom, graduation, winter formal - basically any event they choose. That was the part I was involved in.
In each group, I had one girl that I worked with. They had 50 minutes. There were 2,354 dresses donated this year! The dresses were on racks, by size, then color, then length. It was SO organized. I took my girl in each group to dresses, where they could pick up to 4 dresses to try on at a time. I got lucky, each of my girls found a dress on the first try. Then we went and found shoes. After shoes, they were allowed to go choose one purse and two accessories. None of my girls came out to show me their dresses except one. Two of the four girls needed alterations, and they had a few seamstresses on site for minor alterations. Both of my girls were able to have their dresses altered that needed it. They went back at the end of the day to pick them up. They also good goody bags, had their make up done, had a course on stress management, and many other great, positive things during their day. My mom volunteered as well, and she was a Checkout Attendant. She saw the girls at the end of my process, and bagged all of their items for them.
The event was extremely organized, but was a little hectic, and a little crowded, but we all managed and I think the girls had a really nice day. I got lucky and got girls that were happy to be there :)
My body is extremely sore - but it was worth every ache and pain to see so many girls smiling.
This event started in 2007. They have grown so much. I will list the year and how many girls they were able to serve below:
2007 - 100 Girls
2008 - 130 Girls
2009 - 165 Girls
2010 - 210 Girls
2011 - 326 Girls
I cant wait to see how many they helped this year.
There was a strict no photo policy - mainly due to Orangewood, since the girls are in foster care... but I managed to get a couple quick ones in Orientation. I will try to get more from Orangewood and possibly the OC Register, I would love to share pictures of the dresses and everything so I will check later for some.
Me and my Mom
Me and Stephanie - another volunteer through the Meetup group I am a member of for volunteering
My name tag for the day
