Say Yes to Donating the Dress

Next week will bring the second installment in the Running For Good series.  For now, I wanted to talk about a donation I recently made.

This is my wedding dress.  It is lovely.  I wore it on the day that I married the best man I have ever known.  Since that day, it has hung in a bag in my closet.  I have moved twice since I was married, and both times I put that dress in the trunk of the car, not trusting it to a suitcase in the giant moving trucks we used.

I looked amazing in that dress.

Now, someone else will get a chance to look amazing in that dress.  I have donated it to Adorned in Grace.  They are a non-profit based in Portland, Oregon.  They take donated wedding dresses and resell them, then use all the profits to help victims of sexual trafficking move on with their lives.  You can read more about them on their website, including how to donate your own wedding dress if you so choose:

http://www.adornedingrace.org/

I even found a local cleaner here in Columbus who, in exchange for me paying the cost of shipping the dress to Adorned in Grace, will clean the dress for free and handle the packaging and shipment.  The owner of the dry cleaners, Margaret, personally took my phone call about the free cleaning and met me at the cleaners when I went to drop off my dress.

I hope that the person who buys my dress has as happy an ever after as I have.  I hope that the person who is helped by the profits from selling my dress has as happy an ever after as I have.  I adored my wedding dress, but I love what I can do by donating it.