Dresses for a cause

HARLINGEN — More than 100 residents of an RV community have been coming together to make small dresses to send overseas.

In November, Patricia Cassidy along with a few Tropic Winds residents decided to begin sewing dresses for girls in need.

Now, they know where those dresses are going— Tanzania.

The Dress a Girl Around the World Campaign is part of the Hope 4 Women International organization that aims to clothe young girls in impoverished areas.

While living in Chicago, Cassidy and her husband happened to take a class on the subject where she made her first dress.

They decided to continue that effort in the Valley and had a goal to make 25 dresses.

Since then, the residents of Tropic Winds RV Park have donated items and cut and sewed together more than 100 dresses.

“I’m just totally overwhelmed,” Cassidy said.

The committee began with just three women and a few dozen helpers.

Now there are a least 100 residents helping with the project from the RV park alone.

Cassidy has been receiving phone calls from people all over Harlingen wanting to take part in the campaign.

There are four RV parks and three churches working on dresses that will be donated.

“It shows how many people here in the Valley care,” Cassidy said.

The help won’t stop there.

The group is already starting work for next year and will host another sewing workshop later this month.

According to Cassidy, there is a small Kenyan school with more than 200 girls whom she hopes to send dresses to next year.

The committee is also looking into creating shorts for little boys to be sent with the dresses.

“We are truly blessed to reside with such a talented, hard-working group of volunteers who have spent many hours creating these dresses with love and tenderness in their hearts knowing some young girl somewhere will benefit from this project,” a press release stated.

Cassidy said she was able to get in contact with an ambassador from Dress a Girl who will be headed to Tanzania in early March to deliver the dresses.

Dresses will be mailed out at the end of the week where they will begin their journey to Africa.