Letter to the Editor-Sisters on a Mission

Melody and Christy Schmidt show off some of their collected prom dresses.

My sister and I have been collecting clothes, shoes, luggage for abused and neglected children since we were 11 and 12 years old. We are now at Peninsula High School.  I am 15 and will be a senior in the fall. My sister Christy is 14 and she will be a sophomore.

We also collect prom dresses for girls who cannot afford to buy one and otherwise wouldn’t go to the prom. We have collected thousands of clothing items as well as more than 500 prom dresses and accessories. Our goal and dream is to open a “Community Clothes Closet” where people in need could shop for free. Some girls can’t even afford to pay $10 for a prom dress.

Our collections have helped pregnant teenagers in foster care, and many children whose entire belongings fit into a trash bag. Our collections get bigger each time and with a community closet we could have people donate on a regular basis rather than just on collection day. We would have dresses available for formals throughout the year. We have been searching for a large room for several months now, without any luck.

Our prom dress collection was mentioned on KABC Channel 7 “Cool Kids”, and it’s currently on their website.

We live in Rancho Palos Verdes and are looking for a large room on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. My sister and I don’t belong to an organization. We handle everything ourselves. Our mom Sabine Schmidt helps with the collection pick up by driving us to and from St. John Fisher where we do our collections over and over again.  We have been parishioners at St. John Fisher since 2002. The church is extremely supportive of our collections. They don’t complain when people deliver 300 gowns to their church.

We sort everything in our garage which was recently overflowing with nearly 300 prom dresses, shoes, purses, etc.

Any help or suggestions for space would be much appreciated. We can be reached by email at melbells123@hotmail.com.

Sincerely,

Melody and Christy Schmidt

Peninsula People is proud to spotlight the accomplishments of our young people who are the future leaders in our communities.

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