HARLINGEN — An assembly line of Tropic Wind’s residents worked yesterday morning to cut, measure and sew for a good cause.
Large men’s dress shirts were being cut apart as ruffles and colorful pockets were added to the front.
The residents of the RV community worked to create small dresses that will soon be sent to more than 90 countries all over the world.
The Dress a Girl Around the World campaign is part of Hope 4 Women International, an independent Christian organization aimed to provide resources for women.
Pat Cassidy, a resident at the Winter Texan park, first heard about Dress a Girl Around the World when she went to a workshop held in Chicago where she lives six months out of the year.
The workshop provided her with a pattern to make dresses from large, men’s dress shirts.
The organization requires each dress to be made with strong fabric and decorated with the campaign’s logo.
According to the campaign’s website, girls who receive the dresses are often subjected to predators.
“The dress a girl tag is to show that somebody loves them and cares about them and they’re less likely to be touched,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy and her husband, Leo, have been spending half the year in the Valley for the past six years.
When Cassidy and her husband came down in October, they brought the campaign with them.
Cassidy said she spoke about the project at every resident meeting which garnered interest that would lead to the sewing gathering held yesterday.
“When I got here in October, I started announcing the event in preparation,” Cassidy said. “It just took off.”
Cassidy, with the help of her small committee consisting of her husband and two other residents Joan Goetzinger and Beverly Blair, held an event for the community to get together and make the dresses.
Goetzinger was immediately a fan of the cause and had already made 10 dresses before the sewing event started.
“Its fun and Pat had a list of the countries that the dresses go to and I used to go to this little island in the Caribbean and we had to fly into St. Vincent and that’s one of the places these dresses are going to,” Goetzinger said.
Cassidy said more than 70 residents from Tropic Winds are involved in the project in one form or another.
Whether it’s through monetary donations or labor, Cassidy said the community came through.
“People can contribute,” Cassidy said. “They can go out and get shirts at Goodwill. They can sew. They can cut. Anything and everything, we have a place for them.”
Cassidy originally had a goal to create 25 dresses yesterday.
But, before the event even began they were already close to that number.
Now Cassidy is just hoping to make as many dresses from it as she can.
The event has received such positive feedback from the community, her committee has a second event scheduled for February.
