FROCK STARS
Standout students gifted with brand-new gowns
Thankful city teens were gifted with the dresses of their dreams thanks to a big-hearted Hub ecommerce entrepreneur who donated beautiful, brand-new gowns to 21 lucky girls at the South Boston Boys & Girls Club.
Sam Sisakhti, founder of the popular fashion website Us-Trendy, recently launched “Believe in Yourself Project” — an initiative aimed at emphasizing the importance of a positive body image among young women — and asked the club to nominate girls between the ages of 13 and 17 who had shown strong academic growth and leadership qualities.
The moment the girls get their flashy new dresses, he said, is “very humbling.”
“You think it’s just a piece of clothing, but they’re so appreciative,” Sisakhti said. “A lot of them say it’s the first new item they’ve ever had, everything else has been hand-me-downs.”
And the girls who were selected were counting down the seconds yesterday to the moment they’d get their hands on their new gowns, said Emma Kennedy, a social worker at the club.
“They’ve been asking when it’s going to be happening, they’ve been peering in the windows all afternoon,” she said. “It’s really exciting for them to have these dresses hand-picked for them, dresses that they might not have had access to otherwise.”
Among the girls showing off their new dresses was Fenway High School senior Racquel Laskowski, who was delighted with her light gold gown and said she plans to wear it to an upcoming party that her cousin is throwing. McCormack Middle School student Mumina Ali said she was planning on donning her new maxi dress to her eighth-grade graduation.
“I was looking for a long one,” Ali said. “I thought a long one would be very nice.”
Yesterday’s event was the fourth time the “Believe in Yourself Project” has donated dresses to low-income girls. Sisakhti said young girls in Chicago also will be gifted next week.
And the initiative, Sisakhti said, is meant to boost the self-esteem of the recipients and allow them to enjoy special events without stressing out about what to wear.
“If they never had the confidence to go to a school dance, now they actually have something to wear that’s in style,” he said.