The worst and best trait that I have, I think, is that I love doing things that will never pay my rent or allow me to save for the future because well…I love volunteering and is there really a future worth saving for in this world? We’ll save the latter for another day and focus on the volunteering aspect because as we kick off a miniseries that is all about Crushes That Give Back, I want to talk about the most recent place I volunteered and that’s Cinderella Project in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
This week’s episode will dive more into the who, what, when, and where of Cinderella Project, so for now let’s just get into why it was something I immediately fell for. So this non-profit helps students with prom attire – for free. The service and the clothing are all free, and being that it is a prom service – when I first moved to Virginia in the fall of 2021, the storefront was often closed in the mall I lived near. So one day I finally looked up the Cinderella Project online and was like, hmm – let me sign up and volunteer one Saturday in March 2022. The first girl I helped cried, and I was like – okay, this is something I want to keep doing, and I continued to volunteer every week except for my birthday that prom season.
As someone who had a family friend help purchase their prom attire, I knew what each of those students and their families were financially facing. Senior year is a bank account burden, and when push comes to shove – people definitely want to have food over fashion. However, as cheesy as prom can be – it’s a tradition that I think no one should miss out on because of the cost. So Cinderella Project getting the bill when it comes to the dresses, shoes, and suits – that’s just an awesome thing that I got to be a part of for a couple of years, and it pained me to leave it behind when we moved to Ohio.
However, before we moved half a dozen hours away, I got to work the HoCo days – a charity event in which a lot of the dresses in the shop are for sale for homecoming to raise money for the following prom season. It’s more like a traditional store during those days. People come in and shop like any ol’ day. Then once prom season rolls around, Cinderella turns into an appointment-only store.
Students sign up for a date/time and when they come in we – the fairy godmothers – tend to them personally; helping them get sized, pick fashions, and help them with the zippers (prom is a team sport when it comes to getting all dressed in some cases). I loved it. I truly did, and if I can start one in the future for the local students in Columbus, OH – I will. In a perfect world, I’d get to start one in my hometown area because not much has changed since I grew up there, and free prom attire would be a huge help for those who call that piece of Southern California home.
Rhonda from Cinderella Project trusted me to not only volunteer but to later be on the board as the Vice President. It was an experience I’ll always hold near and dear, and one I’ll never forget. It’s not the first time I’ve volunteered, but only the latest – and I cannot wait to take what I learned with the Cinderella Project and apply it to my next volunteer venture.
Crushgasm 
Leave a comment