Location: McCorkle School
Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013; 12:30-2:00 pm
“Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a tiny kingdom,
peaceful, prosperous, and rich in romance and tradition. Here in a stately chateau, there lived a
widowed gentleman and his little daughter, Cinderella “
With these words starts one of
the most beloved fairy tales of all time.
The reason why people love fairy tales so much is the simplicity of its
plot. It usually starts with some
innocence being lost and the obstacles that the character eventually overcomes
to find the happiness that they deserve.
No matter what the cynics of the world may say, everyone loves a story with a happy ending, and I for one do not want to live in a world devoid of fairy
tales. One of the more charming things
about the story of Cinderella, is that
the term ‘Glass Slipper’ has been
forever associated with magical fairy tales and it is the symbol of a hope that
someday your dreams and wishes will come true.
Back in graduate school, besides the photo frames, a glass slipper was
one of the two other things that I had on display in my apartment. Every time I looked at it, was a
reminder of the same and it never failed to bring a smile to my face. So when I heard that there was a project
bearing the same name, I just had to get involved.
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| The glass slipper |
I found out about this through a
friend and the name alone won me over. I
went to the website to learn more. It
says, “The Glass Slipper Project® is a non-profit organization that
gives away free prom dresses and accessories to high school juniors and seniors
in the Chicagoland and surrounding areas. The Glass Slipper Project collects new and
almost-new formal dresses and accessories and provides them, free of charge, to
students who are unable to purchase their own prom attire. Students
do not need to prove any type of financial hardship in order to get a dress from
us.” What an incredible idea. Through my time with Chicago Cares and
others, I have been involved with causes such as Hunger and Homelessness as well as Senior Citizens and Mentoring. But this
was so unique that the nobility of it all meant that if I could do something
for them; it would be one of the proudest things of my life. Volunteers should not just be needed during
difficult and trying times. There’s
something special about being involved with a project whose outcome was to spread joy. Kudos to those who
came up with this concept and yes I will say it again, ‘Everywhere life is
full of heroism’.
They were having three boutique
days in April and May, during which time they would be distributing dresses and
accessories to student girls; and also providing them individual assistance from
a volunteer ‘personal shopper’. Whatever the girl wanted was going to be
given to her, provided it was in the boutique.
Now, obviously the organizers needed only female volunteers as personal
shoppers, as well as women and girls with skills in sewing and alterations. However, male volunteers were allowed to
attend the boutique set-up and dismantling days, and today was the set-up
day. Hence I was allowed to
sign-up. My shift was supposed to run
from 12:30 pm to 5 pm, but a couple of days prior, I received an email that they
were starting at 8 am and were expecting to be done by 2 pm. Because of my Chicago Cares commitment, I could
not attend the morning session and due to the distance between the two
locations, wasn't expecting to contribute much time before they closed. But I wanted to do something, and so I told
the organizers that I would try to get there as soon as possible. Thanks to the early completion of my morning
project and the ride from Sandy, I arrived at the location around noon.
This school was in middle
of nowhere on the South side, and I was thankful for the ride. I walked in through the side entrance and saw a
big dining room where people were having lunch.
Apparently, the volunteers were going to be provided lunch and I was
famished. But I was also late as per the
new schedule and wanted to get to whatever task they had assigned to me. I was sent upstairs
and met one of the leaders, who asked me to go into one of the several rooms
and start sorting dresses. Each room
contained dresses of a particular size and there were several racks in each of
them, each rack carrying several dresses.
My job was to make sure each dress on the rack was facing the right
direction and none of the hangers were entangled with the dresses. Seemed straightforward enough and I started
looking for a room which did not have a volunteer who was already doing the
same thing. I found one and walked in to
see hundreds of dresses, all arranged in racks distinguished by shades of the
same color. There were reds and yellows
and blues and greens and purples - every color of the spectrum. Sorting through them was going to
take much longer than I had initially anticipated.
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| Rows and rows of dresses |
As I started checking the dresses
and correcting those which were not arranged as per the requirement, I realized
how heavy some of these dresses could get.
While most of the dresses were lovely and were sure to make some girl
really happy, it was a tedious job. Fortunately
they had a radio playing in each room and whether by design or coincidence, the
song that kept repeating was the ‘Thrift
Song’. Talk about being
inappropriately accurate! As I moved
from rack to rack, I couldn’t help but admire the quality of the dresses. These were not your typical hand me downs,
but something any girl could be proud of.
I guarantee that all the girls were going to look terrific at their
prom. Prom, a concept that is quite
alien to me, not having grown up in this country. But from everything I have heard and seen, it
is a big deal for all the teenagers and I was really happy to help.
That one room took me over an
hour and once I was done, I walked out to see if there was any other task that
I could do. One of the other
volunteers told me that I could help in restocking the dresses that were on the
racks outside the rooms. They needed to
be sorted by size and stocked in the appropriate room and in the rack with similar
shade. By now it should be apparent that
I was the only male volunteer in the school that day and so I had to get some
help in making sure I was doing the right thing. Soon that was done as well and we were ready
to leave. The leader thanked us and said
that they required a lot of help during the boutique days, especially for
sewing projects. They said that even I
could come, as long as I stayed on the first floor and helped with registration
and front desk – only women being allowed on the 2nd floor. I said that there were a lot of dresses and
the leader said it wasn't nearly enough.
All of the dresses were donated by individuals and stores, but they
still needed other accessories like make-up and shoes. They were expecting to serve over 1,700 girls
and needed a lot of help in doing that.
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| And in each case they lived happily ever after... |
As I took a bus back into town
that day, I realized how even my minor contribution of arranging the dresses
was going to help. The girls who would be visiting
had to feel as if they were in a real boutique, not a school classroom. We owed it to them to not be sloppy. I have been proud of all the projects that I
have done and it had been a privilege to do this one. Some of these girls may come from
difficult backgrounds, but this project - at least for a short while - allows
them to be treated like the Princesses that they are. There is a reason why all great stories start
with the words ‘Once upon a time…’
before they get grim for a while. That’s
the path everyone has to take, because at the end, each of these stories also
conclude with ‘…they lived happily ever
after’.
''He took her hand, and he kissed it. Then he swooped her up onto his horse. And
the beautiful Princess and the handsome Prince rode off to his castle...where
they lived happily ever after.''
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