Fairy godmother transforms girls’ lives
Project expands makeovers to boys, wedding parties and décor
THERE is a small room in Southernwood where ponytailed schoolgirls emerge a couple of hours later as groomed young women in beautiful gowns and sparkling heels.
Project Rags to Riches founder Cheryl Scheepers, 65, is the fairy godmother figure who makes sure girls who can’t afford to attend their Grade 7 farewells and matric dances emerge from her home looking red carpet ready.
“When my daughter Cheryldene attended her matric dance at West Bank High, I heard there were girls who weren’t going to the dance because they were poor,” said Scheepers who is a prodigious seamstress.
After she retired two years ago Scheepers and her daughter began to shop at charity shops for secondhand evening dresses, jewellery, bags and shoes to stock her tiny but magical sewing room.
“I bought charity shop dresses and dollied them up and then we asked for donations on our Project Rags to Riches Facebook page and had a great response.”
Her sewing room now has rails bursting with 1 000 glittering gowns and a huge crate overflows with 300 pairs of evening shoes for girls to choose from. “We also do their makeup and give them a handbag kitted out with a perfume sample, sweets and a lipgloss.”
This year alone the project has transformed 50 matric girls into glamorous dancing queens and Scheepers is now helping Grade 7 girls to get blinged up for their farewells.
“One minute they are a drab girl and the next they are transformed into princesses,” said Scheepers, who is now extending her makeovers to boys and wedding parties.
She has even built up a collection of table décor to spruce up wedding receptions as her Fairy Godmother duties grow.
When the Daily Dispatch visited Project Rags to Riches last week, there was an air of excitement in the small room as four girls from Grens Primary School were having light make-up applied and nails painted ahead of their dance.
The NPO’s marketing assistant, Angelique Abrahams, 23, herself a recipient of the project’s help when she got married last year, was bustling about applying nail polish, dabbing on eye-shadow and ensuring each girl donned her carefully selected dress. The girls had already been to hairdressers who styled their hair for no charge.
“Cheryl dressed me for my wedding and even helped me with the décor and now I help her full-time,” she said.
Shakira Lee Binneman, 14, said she chose a long black gown with silver metallic beading for her Grade 7 farewell dance because black was her late grandmother’s favourite colour. “This was too expensive for us so Auntie Cheryl and Angelique helped me and this is the most elegant I have ever looked. I am very thankful.”
Jenene Cloete, 13, said having her hair curled at a Nahoon hairdresser was a highlight. — dispatch.co.za