Enchanted Closet | In the News

"Good Works: The Fabric of Dreams"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (January 29, 2003)

A couple of years ago, when Teresha Freckleton-Petite heard about an organization that collected and gave hardly used gowns and formalwear to lower-income teens to wear to their proms, it brought back memories.

"I didn't grow up exactly poor," she said, "but I well remember how my mother struggled and sacrificed so I could have the dress of my dreams and get my hair done just right, when we really couldn't afford it." As she empathized with any girls who might miss the prom because they couldn't afford a dress, Freckleton-Petite, 26, emptied her closet of formalwear to donate.

This year she again wanted to clean out her closet of the gowns she had acquired and put them to good use but found that the organization was defunct. The solution was obvious to the program director for APPLECorps, a public education advocacy organization. She began putting together a similar program and christened it the Enchanted Closet.

Needing to get the program off the ground before prom season this spring, she quickly recruited a sorority sister, Yvette Johnson, to help; made a deal with Adams Shoe Repair and Dry Cleaning in downtown Atlanta to give a deep discount for dry-cleaning and clothes racks; and got Derrick Brown, a computer technology consultant, to create and host a Web site at no charge.

The organization's two-month-long collection drive for new and almost-new formal dresses and related accessories ends March 22. The goal is to outfit 500 low-income girls at no cost.

"A lot of women have tons of formal dresses they won't wear again just sitting around their closets," she said. "Why not give it to a young lady to help her dreams come true?"

Freckleton-Petite is quick to remind folks that a prom is way more than a dance. "It's about confidence and self-esteem at a very sensitive time of life, and it's part of growing up," she said. "Nobody should miss out on that because they can't afford a dress."

Drop-off locations include:

United Way Building (downtown), 100 Edgewood Ave., Suite 1224.
Collection hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays.
Redemption Fellowship (South Atlanta), 418 Ga. 279, Fayetteville.
Collection hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays.

UPDATE: For current donation information and drop-off locations, go to
http://www.enchantedcloset.org/getinvolved

Individuals and businesses can also help by making a financial contribution toward project expenses or by volunteering to host a collection drive in their office, school, church or community.

For more information, call Freckleton-Petite at 404-522-8640, Ext. 2; or e-mail enchantedclosetproject@yahoo.com.

UPDATE: For current contact information, go to
http://www.enchantedcloset.org/contact

--- Betty Parham

© 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Further reproduction, retransmission or distribution of these materials without the prior written consent of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and any copyright holder identified in the material’s copyright notice, is prohibited.

Site designed by Krohnert.net Consulting, Inc.