Month: January 2020

Call Out for Wedding Gowns and Formal Dresses for Haiti

/ Kim Harms / Leave a comment

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Photo from the wedding of a wonderful guy (my interpreter for the week) that mom and I attended while in Haiti in 2015.

We are collecting your wedding gowns, formal dresses and mother-of-the-bride type dresses to send to Haiti.  These dresses are given to a wedding gown rental business in Port au Prince through Mission to Haiti. They provide Mdm. Bennison with an income,

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Mdm. Bennison

and Haitian women a place to go to find beautiful gowns at a reasonable price.

After the construction of the vocational school is complete (see photos here) the school will also begin renting wedding gowns and selling formal dresses.  This will not only provide income, but will also give the students the opportunity to utilize their tailoring skills by making dress alterations as needed.

This is what we are looking for –

  • Wedding Gowns – They must be new(ish) styles. Haitians have access to the Internet and they know what’s in and what’s not. We also prefer dresses that are not heavy with beading. Some beading is fine, but it’s cost prohibitive to ship super-heavy dresses.
  • Formal Gowns – Your daughter’s Prom dress or a bridemaid dress is perfect. Bonus points if you have multiple bridesmaid dresses of the same style to donate.
  • Mother-of-the-Bride dresses.
  • Nice Capes or Jackets that would go with a wedding gown. Haitian women keep their shoulders covered on their wedding day. (See the little jacket in the above photo.)
  • Sewing supplies like lace, white thread, sequins, trim. . . anything that might add to a formal gown.

If you have questions or would like to donate, contact us through Facebook or 500dresses@gmail.com.

2019 Year End Update on Haitian Vocational Sewing School

/ Kim Harms / 1 Comment

Progress is being made on Pastor and Madame Cadet’s vocational sewing school in Beudet, Haiti.  This is the school where mom and I taught on our trips to Haiti. On our first trip the students came to us, and we had classes on the Mission to Haiti property. On our last trip, we taught in the open air on the school property. At that time, the only completed part of the building was the concrete floor. It’s come a long way, but there’s still quite a bit to do. As we receive donations, we send them through Mission to Haiti to be designated for the construction of the building.