"Gifting formal dresses to Girls in need"
A prominent concern that affected all the year 12 students at the time was the forthcoming HSC exams that each individual needed to study for, a situation that acquired its own combination of worry and unease. However, as the year progressed, a new exciting development began to be discussed by Chelsea and her friends, the school prom, and this came with its own array of stress-related issues. What would the girls wear? How would they do their hair and their make-up? And who would be their assumed prince for the night, their date?
The Story of Cinderella's Gift
Once upon a time, there was a young woman by the name of Chelsea who wanted to be a valuable contributor to society. As she was a year 12 student at the Heritage Christian School - Port Macquarie, her attention turned to issues relating to her fellow female students...
These very relevant questions for any young woman at this stage of their life, and all areas were reasonably achievable assuming that all the stars were aligning to create the perfect night for them. However, for some, not all the stars do align, and as we know with all good fairy-tales, there’s always the period in the story where not everything goes as we’d like it to.
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In talking with her female associates, Chelsea came to realise that not everyone had the financial capacity to be the princess they wanted to be on the night. The costs of the dress, shoes, hair, make-up, and whatever else was required would likely accumulate to be in excess of $250, and possibly even more.
Whilst discussing the prom and its requirements with some of her year 12 girlfriends Chelsea began to see that some of these girls were looking apprehensive about the event, instead of eagerly anticipating its arrival. This worried her enormously.
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One day, not long after, Chelsea was sitting with her fellow Culture Setter’s at Port Macquarie’s Grace Church, writing a speech about how people can make an impact on other people’s lives when something enchanted happened. Chelsea thought to herself, ‘why don’t I be the one who makes an impact?’ And in that magical instant, Chelsea came up with the idea of gifting formal dresses to disadvantaged girls.
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Before too long, Chelsea had taken to Facebook to formally begin Cinderella’s Gift, asking the local municipality if they had any dresses that they were willing to donate to a good cause. Amazingly, she was overwhelmed with the response as people from far and wide made contributions. Gratefully she exclaimed, “How rewarding it is to see the generosity of our community”.
Things have moved along quite briskly since then, a number of girls have already received dresses and Chelsea’s mother is on the scene, helping out by washing every donated gown. Some of the townsfolk have also joined in to help and some local seamstresses have offered to discount their prices for alterations.
Chelsea was fortunate enough to win the Luminosity Pitch Project award, organised by a group of people to acknowledge young entrepreneurs and assist in furthering their business ideas. Plus, the member for Port Macquarie, Leslie Williams, acknowledged Chelsea and her unique enterprise in parliament, praising her for her efforts.
Chelsea’s overall goal for her project is to develop it into a huge not-for-profit organisation, hoping to get many more people on board to help with her mission, and then form other centres in different towns.
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Asked what motivates her, Chelsea stated, “I saw a need for girls needing dresses because formal dresses can be so expensive and I didn’t want any girl to not go to her formal because of that”.