I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful my 10-year-old daughter looked when she put on her dance recital costume this spring.
She’d been taking dance lessons for seven years, but this year the sequins seemed to shine more, the tutu seemed poofier and she had a bigger-than-ever smile on her face. Or maybe it was just me.
Other kids should get to feel this way, I thought. Right then I decided to give some of my daughter’s old costumes to a children’s hospital in Pittsburgh. I put up a flyer at the dance studio to see if anyone else wanted to donate, calling the project Bibbidy Bobbidy Ballerinas. One of the other moms saw it and posted the request on Facebook.
It went viral! Dancers and their parents from all over Pennsylvania offered us costumes. We even got donations from out of state! Some of the other dance moms helped me organize all the shipments, and we registered as a nonprofit so people could donate money to help pay for the dry cleaning, storage and other expenses.
So far, we’ve been able to donate to the hospital and a local museum’s dress-up area, where kids can try on different costumes. We’re even putting together a one-day camp, with dance classes and a red carpet. All kids deserve a moment to shine.
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