Hundred Dresses

I'd like to take this time to give a shout out to my friend Wendy Mae. Wendy will most likely not see this post but it does my heart good to talk about her anyway. She is dear to me. And she will be moving to Montana in just a few short weeks.

Last year I found myself in search of an Enrichment Leader. Wendy had just moved into the ward and although I knew she would only be here a year and I didn't know much more about her than her name, I asked that she take on the heavy roll of Enrichment Leader of the Pearland Ward. She obliged.

Little did I know what a wonderful experience it would be to work with her. She is a leader and a strong one at that. She thinks I exaggerate, but I don't. She is organized, quick on her toes, so smart, creative, and loyal to her comittments. I sure do love her and appreciate all that she has done for me and the RS sisters. We will miss her.

We couldn't have had such a wonderful Enrichment activity the other night without the efforts of Wendy and the rest of the Enrichment board. They were awesome! And so was the night. We've had many wonderful activities this year and I should have posted on all of them. But for now I'd like to tell you about our service project, Hundred Dresses.

At the beginning of the year we purchased a children's book called Hundred Dresses. We circulated the book through the ward as best as we could, encouraging each sister to read, sign their name in the book, and donate a gently used dress to a good cause. It was our goal to accumulate 100 dresses.

It was a fun project throughout the year, talking about the book, encouraging others to read it and just keeping the goal and idea alive. Finally our night came to celebrate. We had somewhere between 35-40 sisters join the event, each to bring a potluck salad. We as the Enrichment board provided the cutest cupcakes for dessert.

During the evening we had a discussion about the book, kinda like a gigantic book club. We had previously asked a few sisters to share their special dress story that night. And finally we discussed the purpose and history of the dress, how it makes us feel beautiful and can have so much meaning. We then finished off with a bit about the recipients. We found a women's shelter that was so happy to recieve the beautiful dresses. Unlike I had expected, the sharing of stories resurfaced many memories for us that night, and we shed a few tears talking about homemade dresses that brought us closer to our mothers and grandmothers, wedding dresses that remind us of our wonderful husbands, baby blessing dresses, baptismal dresses, school dresses, etc. The stories went on and on.

Then we ate and visited. It was a wonderful night. I wanted to post the few pictures I took of the decorations. We hung many of the dresses that were donated. The pictures on the wall were drawn by the younger girls in our ward and were a very significant part of the book. They were perfect for the evening. Here is a picture of the napkin holders that my dear and loving husband created on the computer for us to put together.

And here are the most perfect words for the night that I found to put on the napkin holder:

I look in the mirror each morning and night and give thanks for this wonderful life to be a daughter of God and loved as such. Such a pretty face. Such a pretty dress. Such a pretty smile. Such a pretty me. It's stunning and entrancing like running and dancing for I am loved by a pretty world. I feel pretty oh, so pretty and witty and bright, a child of God, a true source of light.
We ended up donating a little over 200 dresses!! I'm so grateful to Wendy Mae, Amber, Melissa and Dianne for their efforts and enthusiasm.