The countdown has ended and the event was a hit!

We really did have intentions to countdown to zero, and ended up stopping at day 3.  What can I say the days just got away from me!  You know those last few days before your big event you always run into those little annoyances or problems that seem astronomical.  I found myself staying up way past midnight just to make sure everything was ready for the big Operation Prom Girl Event.

Did all those late nights really make a difference?  Of course we would say yes but who really knows.  All we know is our event was a hit.  We transformed the VFW room (Veterans of Foreign Wars) into a room fit for a princess and our girls loved it!  We had a very large decor crew including a group of Tri Valley Pageant beauties who used their creativity to make our welcome sign.  (you would have thought that was one of our focus items on those late nights)

As the volunteers worked to transform the room our welcome team was busy getting all the sign in sheets in place and ready.  Let’s not forget the food, desserts, candy and beverages – yes we had another crew who was instrumental in getting all of that set up and replenished.

The girls started arriving well before the event was scheduled to start, which brought a lot of excitement and anticipation to all of us.  When the doors finally opened at 2:00pm, in came the girls many with their mother or legal guardian.  We had 4 amazing speakers sharing from their hearts the struggles they have encountered and how they moved past them.  Our Emcee was witty, spunky and fantastic!  It would be an understatement to say that God was in that room because you could feel the love everywhere.

Our Emcee – Leona Berry

The Faces of Operation Prom Girl – Right side – Founder Dawn Schultz, Left Side – Director of Operations – Linda Harris

First Speaker – Lyndsay Swann

Next Speaker – Vanessa Harris

Next Speaker – Linda Harris

Fourth Speaker – Deserie Valentine

We saved the best for last – the makeup workshop the selection of prom dresses & shoes, last but not least the goodie bags!  We were able to collect over 500 prom dresses so the girls had a wide selection to choose from and we had a seamstress on site to make alterations when necessary.

THE DRESSES & SHOES!!!!!!!

The Goodie Bags that every girl needs!

By the time 6pm rolled around the room was pretty empty except for our clean up/tear down crew.  These folks worked like a team to get the job done.  I am in awe of the folks we have in our community (Inland Empire – Riverside County) who made this all possible.

We would be remiss if we did not say a HUGE thank you to Christina of CB Designs who connected us with Denine Diaz and Mary Martinez of the Lake Elsinore Unified School District who were very instrumental in identifying the girls for our program.

I would like to say we are going to take a break but that is impossible – we are already doing the follow up from the evaluations the girls submitted plus thinking about next years events.

Stay tuned when it comes to me and Dawn there is ALWAYS more to come.

Love to you all

Linda and Dawn