April 23 was a good day for a group of Mobile teenagers who spend their weekends doing work that most adults would call a job.
At the Volunteers of Mobile “Heart of Gold Award” luncheon, the St. Paul’s Episcopal School Interact Club was recognized as one of the outstanding youth groups in Mobile County — cited specifically for the “Pretty in Pink” prom dress giveaway that put formal gowns into the hands of some 300 girls at Bel Air Mall in March.
The Project Behind the Prize
The prom dress boutique is the kind of undertaking that looks effortless on the day and is anything but in the year leading up to it.
Volunteers collected, sorted, cleaned and stored roughly 2,000 donated gowns. They negotiated mall space. They arranged the dresses on racks the way a high-end store would, and then worked the floor as personal shoppers for girls who arrived from Mobile, Fairhope, Loxley, Gulf Shores and points beyond.
The line formed at 8 in the morning for a 10 a.m. opening. Only five girls left without a dress.
The club operates under faculty advisors Heather Normand and Rachel Graham. Interact is Rotary’s service program for high school students, and the St. Paul’s chapter has become one of the more visible youth service organizations in the county.
A Second Award, for Quieter Work
The luncheon also recognized the school’s Service Leadership Class, which took the 2008 Heart of Gold Youth Group Merit Winner Award.
The students honored — Worth Kittrell, Leighton Silverstein, Sara Thetford and Marissa Gacek — were cited for volunteer service at Augusta Evans School, Prichard Preparatory School, Mulherin Place and the Saint’s Walk for a Cure.
That list deserves a moment’s attention, because it is not a list of glamorous assignments. Augusta Evans serves students with significant disabilities. Mulherin Place provides residential care. Prichard Preparatory operates in a city whose finances have been on the brink for years. These are places where volunteers are needed on ordinary Tuesdays, not just at fundraisers.
What Volunteers of Mobile Does
Volunteers of Mobile serves as a clearinghouse connecting people who want to give time with the agencies that need it, and its annual Heart of Gold awards are among the few local honors aimed squarely at recognizing unpaid service.
Naming a youth group alongside adult honorees is a deliberate choice. Teenage volunteers are frequently treated as a resource to be deployed rather than as organizers in their own right. The Pretty in Pink boutique was conceived, staffed and run largely by students, with adults in a supporting role.
Organizers of the prom dress project have already announced their goal for next year: at least 500 gowns, with Bel Air Mall returning as a partner. If the target is met, the awards luncheon may find itself with a familiar nominee.