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Dresses raise 95k for Down Syndrome Centre!
As we tidy up the hangers and mirrors, steam and fold our pretty pinny woman aprons, and re pack our mannequins, it’s hard to believe that Buy My Dress 2011 has come and gone!
And what a Buy My Dress it was! Eight county events, 7,500 donated dresses, hundreds of volunteers, thousands of hangers, thousands of bags, and 95k raised for Down Syndrome Centre!! What a phenomenal amount to raise from once-loved dresses!
Our thank you list is lengthy due to the fantastic support we received from people and businesses all over the country! Thanks to everyone who donated dresses and re-stocked with new ones; to those who allowed us use their premises as a drop-off point; to those who created our ad campaign free of charge; to those who aired our ad campaign free of charge; to companies who carried out workplace collections; to those who acted as BMD Champions and did all sorts of things to collect dresses i.e. coffee mornings, badgering family and friends etc; to those who volunteered to help out in the lead up to and on the day of the event, and to those who came in their droves to the eight events and parted with their hard earned cash to support the work of Down Syndrome Centre.
Thank you to the Mum from Waterford and her daughter, Rosie, who has Down syndrome, who volunteered and travelled across the country to help out at the Kilkenny event. And to the lady who donated a genuine Canadian squirrel fur coat which sold for €130. Not forgetting all the wedding guests who left the party downstairs to come and shop for dresses! Kilkenny raised €4,132.
In Gorey, Mick Wallace TD opened the event and donated one of his pink shirts which was sold for €50. The organisers - with a firm target in mind of getting €1,000 dresses - surpasses this and collected 1,400. The wardrobes of Gorey and its surrounds must have been stripped bare! There's no saying no to those women! Lots of fab labels donated, lots of spot prizes and €7,200 raised.
In Cork, the Clarion Hotel location was a great success and at the end of the day only 40 or 50 dresses remained - great achievement - and a total of €7,300 banked from the sale of some glorious gunas.
Tralee came up trumps too with a total of 600 dresses donated to the event which took place in the former Whisper Boutique, access to which was given by the lovely people in North Real Estate in Tralee. Proving that Buy My Dress is a concept that needs to hapen in every county, the ladies of Tralee bought dresses to the tune of €4,700.
Moving to Limerick and the Parkway Shopping Centre was provided with thanks to Harcourt Development. Dunnes Stores in Parkway helped fit out the shop and provided change for the tills throughout the day and were a wonderful support to the organsiers. With their assistance, all the change in Limerick's tills came to €4430.
Galway. Galway. So good we'll name it twice! What must the guests in the G Hotel (who provided the venue at no cost) have thought when the queue to get in - they had to filter people in in tens and twenties - stretched all the way through the reception and out to the lifts. 820 lady passed through the doors and their enthusiasm for Buy My Dress raised a whopping €14,000.
And then Mayo. 120 people gathered in the Royal Theatre before the doors opened! Thanks to Tommy Marren of Midwest Radio for the enormous support on air and for opening the event before a packed room of dress-hungry women. They came and they came and they spent €7,300.
Finally here in Dublin, we were delighted to see so many of our volunteers return to help out. The buzz was phenomenal. From the man who was sent for Nuala Carey's dress (pictured above) and eventually bagged it despite having to wait for it to come out of the changing room to the woman who donated her daughter's communion dress and when asked when the communion was, told us ¨last Saturday"! Such dedicated following netted a futher €18,000.
Along with further donations we received to this year's fund, the total comes to in excess of €94,000.
The fun seems to have been widespread and the bargains had. And so, that's it for another year. We're looking forward to it already!
And if you missed it, see www.buymydressonline.ie from where we sell the same dresses online all year round. And if you'd like to organise a Buy My Dress in your county next year, drop us a line or a call. We'd love to hear from you.
