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CHESTER — Nearly every girl has been there. She goes to the store to find a dress for a formal occasion and discovers that she faces a bigger problem than finding the perfect dress: finding the perfect dress for the perfect price. Thanks to Sherry Emery, girls who live in the Tri-State Area will not face that problem if they attend Chester First United Methodist Church’s third Gowns Galore dress sale. “I always wanted to do this program,” Emery said. “I’d been thinking about it for a number of years, but I was a teacher at the time and just didn’t have the time to organize it.” After she retired from teaching in 2007, Emery turned her focus to making the Gowns Galore dress sale a reality. “I wanted to do it to help those girls in the community who may not be able to go out and pay $700 for a gown,” she said. “I also wanted to help our local food pantry, the FISH organization here in Chester and Newell.” The resulting first sale, held in February 2008, brought in 155 dresses and raised $800 for F.I.S.H. The only complaint from those who attended was the sale’s timing. “We changed it to November because then it gives people time to get a dress before a winter formal, and if it’s in February then we have to worry about snow and having to cancel,” Emery said. Held just nine months after the first in November 2008, the second sale brought in 200 dresses and raised $1,200 for FISH. This year, the sale will be held at the church, located at 240 Carolina Ave., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Girls will be able to choose from 175 dresses, ranging from size 2-22 and from $5 to $350. “We have a wide variety of sizes and colors and styles” from slinky dresses to ball gowns, Emery said. “Some have also brought in accessories for a few dresses, they brought in purses, shoes, and even jewelry.” Each dress is labeled with a number that corresponds to the seller, so sellers can remain anonymous. “There’s nothing on the tag to indicate whose dress it was or what school it came from, and the dresses are very beautiful,” Emery said. Girls who attend the sale will also have the opportunity to try on dresses before they choose one. “We have three different dressing rooms with mirrors so that the girls can try them on and see how they look, we just ask that they don’t wear makeup,” Emery said. Members of the church and its Women’s Life Group help Emery facilitate the sale. “We have a core group of workers who have helped us all three times, and we’ve got it down pat,” Emery said. Those who bring dresses for the sale must pay a $5 fee to sell each dress. The fee is waived if the seller chooses to donate the money to FISH instead of collecting what the sale of her dress brings in. Otherwise, the $5 fee goes toward FISH while the money from the sale of the dress is returned to the seller. Sellers may pick up the money after the sale of their dresses brought in at the church between 1-3 p.m. on Sunday. Any dresses that do not sell will be donated to charity, Emery said. Emery accepts dresses all year for the next sale. To donate a dress for next year’s Gowns Galore sale or for information on this year’s sale, contact Emery at (304) 387-1469.

 

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