The Cinderella Project Experience

Submitted by Active member Christie Causey

When you join the Junior League of Columbia, you do it for the purpose of wanting to serve your community, make new friends and be a part of something special. I have been a part of the Junior League for seven years - six active and one provisional. I have worked many shifts, but this shift wasn’t like any other I had ever worked…The Cinderella Project.

The Cinderella Project gives teens in the area a chance to shop for a free prom gown, accessories, shoes and more at no cost to them, and the only requirement, I believe, is a valid high school ID. People all over the area donate dresses to this project and I learned that the chairs of the event actually shop around consignment stores to find additional gowns and increase variety and size options for all the girls to view. They also sort through all dresses donated, weed out any that may not meet “prom criteria” and donate those to Goodwill! Wow! What a great thing!

I arrived in the law school parking lot at 7:45 am ready for my assignment. I was so excited! I met Dare, a member of the SC Bar Association who has been a part of this event for many years. She gave me the task of being with her in the re-racking dept.

This is how the Cinderella Project works: girls wait in line for the doors to open, storm in, view tons of beautiful gowns and select three at a time to try on. When they are finished trying on, they can proceed to the accessories area if they have found that “oh so perfect gown.” If they haven’t found it, they can return the three gowns to the fitting room attendant and return to the selection area.

In the re-racking area, the dressing room attendants return all unwanted gowns to us and we hang them, if needed, and then rack them according to size. The gowns are then taken back by to the selection area by the floor attendants. It was crazy!  We had to make sure that all the girls coming in and out of the dressing rooms knew they couldn’t view or select any of the gowns on the size rack until they were returned to the selection floor because it’s only fair that everyone get to see them in the same place. 

I worked hard for three hours and when replacement shift workers showed up, I found it hard to leave.  I watched a so many girls come through there carrying gowns out of the dressing rooms with huge smiles on their face! Dare told me that they have the teen girls from Epworth Children’s Home come in first to view the gowns. I was just so in awe of how wonderful this project is. It is a wonderful thing they are doing and I was very excited that JLC could be a part of this rewarding day!