It all started with an idea a friend planted in Patrice Dempsey’s mind after sharing a story of a similar program in Dallas. She founded Cinderella’s Closet in 2015 after she retired from a 35-yr career with the US Postal Service. When she retired she brought that idea to the forefront and began the process of building Cinderella’s Closet Taylor TX. She reached out to her local community by asking for dress donations. They responded amazingly and before she knew it, she had 100 dresses! The rest is history.
While we enjoy helping every one of our young people select the perfect gown, and accessories, any fairy godmother will tell you that one of our most delightful blessings we receive occurs each year when the ladies from Down Home Ranch in Elgin, TX, come to see us so we may provide gowns for their ladies to participate in the Miss Amazing Pageant.
Pretty In Pink or “PIP”, as we call her, is the dress that started it all. Purchased from an antique store in Austin, TX. PIP is proudly displayed at Cinderella’s Closet for everyone to enjoy.
I will tell you a story and you will know why we enjoy these ladies so much.
Valerie had come to see us to select a dress several times before, and we all knew that Valerie was sassy. During one of Down Home Ranch’s trips to the Closet, in walks Valerie with a glum look on her face. Being concerned, one of the fairy godmothers said to her, “Aw, Valerie don’t worry. I promise we will find the perfect dress for you.” It was at that moment that Valerie twirls around, looks at the fairy godmother like she had lost her mind, and said very matter-of-factually, “It doesn’t matter if you find the perfect dress for me or not. I am going to look AMAZING no matter what dress I wear!” Well, there you go! All of the fairy godmothers got big smiles on their faces and you know what? Valerie was exactly right. She did look amazing! She is in the little short black and red dress in the picture below.
OUR FIRST TEA PARTIES IN 2015 & 2016
During those first few years we didn’t have a permanent home so we used a rental truck to move all of our current inventory of 200-400 dresses to the gym at Trinity Lutheran Church to host these events! After the Tea Party was over, we grabbed the rental truck again and moved all of the dresses back to the storage unit. Thank goodness our wonderful Taylor TX neighbors pitched in to help. It was a ton of work but so much fun and exciting, and our volunteers which we call “fairy godmothers” loved every minute!