girls clothes

Mrs. Mary’s Boutique founder made it to Pace center dance on time - The Florida Times-Union

Posted: 25 Dec 2019 08:13 AM PST

Mary Warner has been described as Pace Center for Girls' ultimate ambassador. She took over the clothes closet at the alternative school for at-risk girls and turned it into a classy boutique. The 84-year-old is a long-time volunteer at the school and loves to tell its story.

When Mary Warner was rushed to the emergency room, she told the doctor she couldn't stay because she had to go to a prom.

Tests showed that Warner, then 80, had suffered a mini-stroke. But when the doctor told her she was being admitted, she anxiously protested that she had a dance to attend in two days.

The surprised neurologist offered her a deal. If it was safe for her to go, he would discharge her in time. If not, she would stay without giving him a hard time. Deal accepted. On prom day, Warner was told the good news. She was being discharged by 4 p.m.

A friend picked her up, she hurriedly dressed in what she called her formal cruise ship attire — a full-length navy blue evening gown accented by silver and rhinestone necklaces.

It's just one example of her dedication to Pace Center for Girls. Warner was there, not to dance, but to see the girls in the finery that she had spent months collecting for them.

Warner, now 84, takes her volunteer duties seriously. Tami Garrett, Pace Center's development director, describes her as the organization's ultimate ambassador.

She got involved 17 years ago while working in the CSX accounting department. A company employee told Warner, who was president of the National Association of Railway Business Women, that his daughter had attended the alternative school for at-risk girls, and it had saved her life.

Eventually, the Railway Business Women toured the facility at 2933 University Blvd. N. in Arlington, across from Jacksonville University. Warner was given the center's wish list. One need was to take care of the clothes closet.

"I had retired, so I thought, 'Oh, I can do that.'"

She later learned that this was not your orderly, well-stocked closet. It turned out to be a multi-year project to establish a permanent area on campus that is now known as Mrs. Mary's Boutique.

At first, she was given six black trash bags of donated clothes and a classroom to display the wares. The students earned points for positive behaviors and accomplishments. With those points, they could shop at the boutique and also promote a positive self-image, responsible behavior and budgeting.

But the girls had to take their selections home in plastic bags. Warner and two volunteers solicited fashionable department store bags from friends so the girls could get on the bus, their purchases wrapped in tissue, and "feel like every other teenager that's been shopping," she said.

When the initial donations were depleted, she continually collected gently used or new clothing.

"We started getting so many donations that they moved me into the board room, and then we grew until they gave us part of the activity room," Warner said.

Meanwhile, the shopping events increased from two to six a year.

"We would come early in the morning and set up shop," she said.

The inventory, which was stored in totes in a closet, had to be unpacked, put on hangers and racks and then the remaining items repacked for each event.

That changed this year when Garrett offered her permanent use of a classroom that was being moved elsewhere on campus.

Warner was thrilled, but it took months of work to transform a bland room into the boutique she envisioned.

"How were we going to decorate it?" she asked herself. "How were we going to fit tables and racks in here? But God provides."

An architect drew up plans for how everything would fit. A Hallmark store that was going out of business donated shelf units and fixtures. A contractor donated gray plank flooring, and the walls were painted a pale shade of coordinating gray.

A consignment shop donated jewelry displays. Numerous watches were donated with a Mandarin jeweler putting new batteries in at cost.

"Everything in this room was donated," Warner said, sweeping her arm around the interior.

Details, such as graduated shelves and a round area rug were added to lend an aura of elegance and a neon-lit "Open" sign for a festive touch.

"I think of myself as a facilitator," Warner said. "I find out what people's strengths are, and then I turn them loose."

For instance, jeans used to be stacked on a table. A volunteer dreamed up a way to display them on pull-out hangers.

About the hangers. They used to be of every conceivable type until two volunteers bought matching ones for a coordinated look.

Warner said she told volunteer Lillian Braden, who has been with her since the inception and whom she calls her organizer, that it would be helpful if they had signs with the price of the items. The next time Braden came to Pace, she brought laminated signs.

The inventory grew to include bras, jewelry, purses and household items.

Another challenge came five years ago when she was asked to stage a similar event for Pace's family night. Warner's response was that she would do the best she could, and by the way, how much time did she have?

She learned it was scheduled for the next week. Not surprisingly, Warner pulled it off. She called on her volunteer network and told them she needed men's and children's clothes right away.

At the semi-annual family night, participants eat dinner, visit classrooms, see the girls display their entertainment skills and be recognized for their accomplishments. It was followed up by shopping with participants taking as much as they want.

Nothing goes to waste, she said. The clothes and housewares are donated to other worthy organizations.

It was so successful that she's been asked to do it ever since.

Warner, who also volunteers with other organizations and is heavily involved at her church, Mandarin United Methodist, has another project going as well. She gets people to donate prom dresses. The girls try on six and then narrow it down to THE one with shoes, purses and jewelry to match.

Warner leads tours and tells the Pace story to anyone who lets her in the door.

Girls in the program often are danger of dropping out, failing classes or landing in the juvenile justice system. Classes are small, counseling is available and education plans are individualized.

"She generates respect and honor and dignity," Garrett said. "She is greeted with hugs and echoes of 'Hello Miss Mary' as she walks down the halls."

When the boutique's opening ceremony was held some months ago, there was a sheet cake with "A Dream Come True" spelled out in the icing.

"That expresses how I feel," Warner said.

Pace is special to her, she said, because she has a daughter and granddaughter who have a good life, and she thinks others should have the same opportunity. Warner said she has been to many Pace graduations and seen the successes of its graduates and what the school has accomplished.

Warner, who spends about six days a month at Pace, said she has groomed several of her volunteers.

"I've been asked what's going to happen when I can no longer do it," she said. "Nothing's going to happen. It will keep right on happening."

As for the students, when she celebrated her 84th birthday in November, she was given a party complete with 50 birthday cards expressing how they enjoyed having conversations with her.

"I may not know you personally, but when I didn't have any clothes or underwear, your boutique was available," was the typical response from one girl. "I thank you for allowing me to wear your clothing."

Sandy Strickland: (904) 359-4128

Seamstress makes 5,000 dresses for girls in developing countries - Deseret News

Posted: 23 Dec 2019 06:00 PM PST

VINEYARD — When Arda Molen was little, she always received her big sisters' hand-me-down clothes made by their mother, a seamstress.

"Except that they were 12 and eight years older than me, and the dresses that they had looked really funny on me," she recalled with a smile.

One school day, Molen wore another one of her older sister's dresses to school and got teased by other kids.

"So I came home and decided that I would sew all my clothes from then on. And I did, from the age 12."

While other girls got new dresses for Christmas, she received books filled with blank pages to design her own. Soon, she learned to design patterns. She eventually went to college to study sewing and later became an instructor.

But sewing wasn't her only creative passion. Molen also danced, sang and painted — until one day four years ago, when she was severely injured in a four-car crash.

She could no longer do many of the things she loved. So to cope with the trauma, Molen decided to do what she still could — sew — to help other little girls receive something made just for them.

"I was hurt really bad. They had to cut me out of the car. Anyway, it left me so I couldn't walk temporarily, I couldn't walk at all. And so I had to sit. I decided instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I would do something for someone who was worse off than I was," she recalled.

Arda Molen, who has made thousands of dresses to donate to children in need, poses for a portrait at her home in Vineyard on Monday, Nov. 11, 2019.

Since then, Molen has made 5,000 dresses that have been donated to girls in developing countries worldwide. The last thousand or so have been taken by the organization World of Difference to Malawi, Africa.

"Arda is an amazing person. ... She has worked very, very diligently on this side, does all the hard work, and we get the blessings on the other side of the world to be able to deliver her love through those dresses to the needy children there," said Richard P. Nielsen, co-founder and president of World of Difference, and founding president of Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo.

The organization, with many volunteers from the university, leads teams to Africa to help children, build schools and libraries, and drill wells in villages.

Nielsen said he's raised five children, and "on Christmas morning, I see the joy and the happiness and the excitement in their eyes and in their faces."

But he said nothing compares to the excitement of the orphan girls when they see the dresses made by Molen.

"These girls don't have, they're in orphanages, so they don't have parents. They don't have access to clothing or anything that we take so for granted here. And so the clothes they're wearing are the clothes they've been wearing for the last year, will probably be the clothes they're wearing for the next year," Nielsen explained.

"For these girls to be able to receive a dress like that, that is new, the first question that not only comes out of their mouth but is expressed in their eyes is, 'Is this my dress? Is this mine?' And it's like, 'Yes, this is yours.'

Children wear dresses made and donated by Arda Molen.

"The tears, and the excitement and the disbelief. I mean, they just hold that dress like it's a brand new baby."

Molen says hearing of the girls' reactions is what keeps her sewing. She has severely damaged her hand with all the thousands of hours of sewing and has undergone surgery. She's also gone through multiple sewing machines.

However, "I can still sew. I guide it through the sewing machine even with this on," she said of the cast on her arm. "In fact, the day after surgery, my grandson came to see me and I was in here sewing the day after surgery, and I said, 'Don't tell your mother.'"

He did tell his mom, and they threatened to take her sewing machine away, she recalled.

"But that's how much I like to sew for these little girls."

It takes about two hours to make one of the dresses, meaning Molen has spent about 10,000 hours making them. To put that into perspective, someone working a 40-hour week works 2,080 hours in a year.

Now, with her injury, she can "only do a half-hour at a time, three times a day," she says. Friends and family members now help her by pinning the shirt to the skirt.

And any time she sees any cute T-shirts or fabrics for the skirts in the store, she buys them all. Photo books of her dresses — and girls receiving them — show colorful fabrics, Disney themes and smiling faces.

For more information about Molen's dresses and how you can help, visit the website her granddaughter created for her, humanitariansewing.org.

For more information about World of Difference and volunteer opportunities, visit makeaworldofdifference.org.