Top Buttons Hosts Clothing Donation Event for Some Very Deserving Central Florida Teens

On September 20th, we plan to provide an experience through which young women leave with much more than just free clothes. At Top Buttons, we recognize many young women who might want to dress in more proper fitting attire often don’t have the money to go out and buy clothes as needed. Through our “Fall Wardrobe Makeover Event for Teenage Girls in Need” we are working to offer these young ladies with styling tips from our Top Buttons personal stylists and provide them with gently used clothing to replace or enhance their current wardrobe.

Organizations such as PACE Center for Girls, Teen Challenge, Florida Baptist Children’s Home, and others will be able to nominate teen girls between the ages of 13-17 to be a part. Twenty-five girls will be chosen and will have a TB personal stylist waiting to help them pick out clothing that fits their personal style and their body type from quality and stylish clothing donated from people in the central Florida area. The girls who participate will be able to take home 10-12 clothing items at no charge, as well as, receive other gifts from our local community.

On this Special day, Each girl will receive:

• Free skin care consultation
• Makeup and hair touch ups
• Photoshoot in their favorite outfit
• Refreshments
• 10 minute talk on self-compassion and why it’s important to not compare your body image with others
• 10-12 articles of clothing

We truly love sharing our message with teens. We can connect through fashion, and then talk about deeper matters of the heart. It’s true, we all send a message through what we wear, and we will continue to challenge these young women to consider the message they are sending with their clothing choices. The girls who participate in this event will have access to our Top Buttons team for ongoing mentorship and encouragement. We are honored to partner with these local civic organizations and support the positive message they are working to instill in their girls.

There are several organizations and people, who are partnering with us to help make this event a success! We look forward to sharing more details, as we get closer to the event.

If you would like to DONATE CLOTHING, sponsor, donate a product or give a monetary gift to help us facilitate this special day, please comment below for more info.

Fit For A Princess: Creating Princess Moments One Dress At A Time

 On a recent Instagram post the Top Buttons community of followers got a sneak peek on Alexis' involvement with something called Fit For A Princess. Here's the scoop:

Fit For A Princess (FFAP) is an organization in Lakeland, FL whose purpose is to create 'princess moments' for underprivileged high school students who would normally be unable to attend their prom. FFAP has carried out this vision by previously holding dress collections throughout the academic year to donate to the girls of Kathleen High School.

While founder Rachel Kelly was studying in her undergrad at Southeastern University, she read an article about a local high school student who couldn't attend her senior prom because she couldn't afford a dress.

“I realized in that moment that I wasn’t going to let a dress be the reason a girl would miss out on a Princess Moment,” says Kelly.

Since then, Rachel Kelly's dream for these girls became a reality. Currently, FFAP has over 200 dresses in their collection, although they are still looking to expand the variety of not only dresses but now accessories too. In addition, FFAP has received a lot of positive publicity, expansion, and donations. Miss Teen Florida has even offered to collect and donate pageant dresses from fellow pageant contestants and she has promised her presence at the dress give-away event in February.

“I got the call when I was in the store shopping. I literally threw the cart down the aisle and almost dropped my phone,” says Kelly. “You wouldn’t believe how many people are backing this. I have so much support."

This movement to create 'princess moments' has now been adopted by Florida Southern as well. Because two universities have now teamed up to make this event possible, Kelly expects to collect double the amount of dresses and even provide dresses for double the amount of girls by opening up their event to the students of Lakeland Senior High School as well as maintaining their involvement with Kathleen High School. To ensure that this vision is possible, Top Buttons is also supporting FFAP's endeavors and will be assisting in collecting dresses as well.

On February 22, 2014, Top Buttons will be teaming up with the FFAP team to transform Southeastern University's Sportsplex into a fancy boutique full of dresses, where high school students are invited to shop the dress selection completely free of charge with the opportunity to become a princess. On the day of the event, Top Buttons stylists and FFAP volunteers will be dressed as personal fashion consultants to create a dream come true.

More information regarding donations or volunteering can be found by emailing Alexis Gauthier at Alexis@topbuttons.org, or by contacting the founder herself -- Rachel Kelly -- at FitForAPrincess1@yahoo.com or visiting their Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/fitforaprincess1