Sequins and Smiles to host trunk show

The closet that holds the dresses donated to Sequins and Smiles is painted pink and has organized racks that appeal to many tastes. Some dresses are short, some are sparkly and some are vintage, but all of them are made available to girls who might not be able to afford them otherwise.

“We’re trying to make it trendy and fun, we want to provide the same prom experience that a girl would get as if they went to a boutique,” graduate student Tiffany Cannon said.

The group will host a trunk show Feb. 11 to showcase the dresses that have been donated by students and boutiques.

“The trunk show held by Sequins and Smiles in the past was run by whoever was interested in volunteering. There is so much that goes into preparing for it that people would get overwhelmed by the project,” Cannon said.

Kendall Stiles, who is the director of the GIVE Center, has seen Sequins and Smiles through its many phases.

“At first, we collected dresses donated by boutiques, and we would put just put them in a box at The GIVE Center,” Stiles said. “We had a couple racks of clothing in the side rooms as we received more pieces, but then we started getting overwhelmed by the amount of dresses. More people have heard about the program so at that time we realized that we needed to organize more.”

Both Cannon and chairman Sarah Federspiel were up to the challenge, but they first had to work together to take on the challenge of organizing the closet.

“A bunch of us (sorority sisters) finished cleaning the closet and got rid of a lot of the dresses at the end of summer break,” Federspiel said.

Sequins and Smiles system allots a certain amount of stars to each dress ranging from one to five stars, depending on the newness and quality of the dress. For every star on the tag, that is the amount of community service hours the girl must do to use the dress.

“The girls will complete all but one of the community service hours, and if they bring the dresses back, they will not have to do the last hour of community service,” Federspiel said.

When participants sign up for their community service hours, they are placed in areas that are of interest to them and in areas where they are most talented.

“We have put flyers in the hands of church leaders, DFACS, and at the Boys and Girls Club to tell them about the program and to see if they know a girl who could benefit,” Cannon said.

Posted by Joanna Sullivan on Feb 5 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry