The Princess Project for a good cause

March 15, 2008
The Princess Project in San Leandro, CA.
A not-for-profit company that receives donated prom-style dresses to give to teenagers who could not afford them otherwise. Each girl receives a free dress and accessory. For more information: http://www.princessproject.org/princess/

It's 7:30 am and I am being briefed on what my duties were. I asked for the busiest position they had, as I like to stay active and awake as much as possible this early in the day. So I got the title of the"personal shopper" along with four others.

My job was to assist a given group of young teenagers and assist them in finding a prom dress. They could pick 3 dresses at a time and try it on before heading off to the accessories department. What I didn't realize was there were over a 100 ladies waiting outside the door and I had 30 minutes to service each group or they would leave with no dress!
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What? I hate clothes shopping for myself, and I am to help these fashion-conscious teenagers to find the dress? Haha what a laugh- it's almost ironic!

The girls registered first, and then were briefed by me of the rules.


They then headed to the racks of prom dresses organized by size and color...

Then off to the dressing room to try them on...and if it didn't fit or if they did not like it, they would search for another dress before their 30-minutes were up. My fingers were sore from trying to zip up dress backs on girls sucking it up to fit it!

I helped this chic find her dress, what a perfect fit and no complaints also!

Once they found "the" dress, they would then head to the accessory department to get one piece of jewelry, scarf, or purse.

Channel 20 came out to interview the Princess Project spokesperson.

The last group of girls were the most difficult. I made the mistake of telling this already very skinny girl that the dress did not fit her and someone else much smaller (like with no boobs) would fit the thing. She refused to take the dress off, despite 2 other volunteers telling her likewise. She finally took it off (by golly!) And then her girlfriend was just as much a challenge as she had a small bust and large saddle bags.

The last girl was almost in tears when I tried to help as she never wore a dress of this sort and already spent 20-minutes going through the racks but not picking anything out. I succeeded in having her pick between the hot red dress or the midnight blue one. I told her that color is an extension of her personality-wear red if you want to be noticed, wear dark blue if you prefer to have a subtle appearance and are shy in nature. Surprisingly, the shy girl chose the red dress and was so excited she hugged me before she left! (Joy!)

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I had gone over my volunteer time by an hour and a half (it was almost 2pm!) and was able to help about 28 girls find a dress in this duration. I was exhausted! Shopping always tears me apart! But I was amazed at how a girl could look great in a dress I thought was ugly, but then there were also ugly girls that no matter how beautiful the dress, it just didn't improve their features any. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that!?

Me wearing a tiara and feather boa. Look, my face looks tired. Oh by the way, if you are wondering how I ended up volunteering for this? I had a high-end cocktail dress I wanted to give away (instead of giving it to goodwill) and found the Princess Project website. And I still never got around to donating the dress! I wanna go home now!