2009 2010
Grand Opening Celebration
ABC 7 TV Interview: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/inland_empire&id=7414339
KCAL TV Interview : http://www.cbs2.com/video/?id=115845@kcbs.dayport.com
___________________________________________________________________________________
Tea Raises Money for Non-Profit Organization
September 25, 2010
Californian Write Up.pdf
___________________________________________________________________________________
(Photo by Don Boomer - Staff photographer)
Nicole Zimmerman of the Couture Girl's Closet, an organization founded to help high school girls acquire semi-formal and formal dresses for high school events, held a grand opening at the organization's new Temecula store on Wednesday. The store features about 400 gowns. When Nicole Zimmerman and her mother, Tracy MacKellar, started The Couture Girl's Closet, they simply wanted to make sure teenage girls didn't have to miss school dances because they couldn't afford a gown.
So, they sought donations of new or slightly used semi-formal and formal dresses that high schools girls could borrow for the events. Less than a year later, the organization, founded in November, has grown to the point where it now has its own storefront.
Couture Girl's Closet had a grand opening celebration Wednesday in its "Borrow Boutique," a donated store in the Temecula Town Center. Nicole, a 17-year-old junior at Great Oak High School in Temecula, said there are more than 400 dresses available for girls to borrow.
By moving out of the MacKellar home and into the store, the service can be offered to girls from all area high schools, not just Great Oak, Nicole said. Dresses are available for upcoming winter formal dances, which most schools hold between November and January.
Nicole said she has benefited from helping others. "I have learned what the true definition of selflessness is, no matter how big or small you help people, everything counts," she said.
CRAIG SHULTZ - cshultz@californian.com | Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Borrow Boutique Grand Opening
10:00 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By JEFF HORSEMAN
The Press-Enterprise
A new Temecula nonprofit store is giving every high school girl a chance to be the belle of the ball.
The Couture Girl's Closet plans its grand opening at 5 p.m. today in the Temecula Town Center at Rancho California and Ynez Roads.
The store lets girls borrow formal and semi-formal dresses for free. Girls must be accompanied by a parent and have a valid high school ID.
The idea is to give every girl a chance to attend prom or homecoming even if she can't afford a dress. "It's high school memories. You're only in high school once," said store founder Tracy MacKellar. "It's so important to have an opportunity to go, to have an opportunity to feel like you're a part of the high school, that you're not left out."
The idea for the store stems from a conversation MacKellar had with her daughter Nicole, a junior at Great Oak High School in Temecula.
When asked how her homecoming dance went, Nicole said a lot of girls didn't go because they couldn't afford a dress, Tracy MacKellar said. Mother and daughter went to work solving the problem, and soon, Tracy MacKellar found herself getting a business license and nonprofit status.
Thanks to the Web site www.donatemydress.org, the store already has more than 300 new and used dresses. "I never thought that it was going to get to this level," Tracy MacKellar said. "It's become huge. The community has ... just really opened up."
The store will be open from 2:30 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, although Tracy MacKellar said special hours are available by appointment.
Reach Jeff Horseman at 951-375-3727 or jhorseman@PE.com
________________________________________________________________
Temecula's First Special Ed Prom
The Valley News
Friday, June 5th, 2009 Issue 23, Volume 9.
Valdemar Monroy, 14, and Michaela Aronson, 18, dance during the Spectacular Prom, an event catering to special education
students within the Temecula Valley Unified School District.
Jack Jones, 18, dances with Amy Hayes, 16,
during the Spectacular Prom for special education students at Great Oak High School.
Though he is a senior, Jack Jones had never been to a school dance before. At the Spectacular Prom, however, he spent the entire evening on the dance floor. The Spectacular Prom, which took place at Great Oak High School last Saturday, catered to special education students like Jones.
The event welcomed more than 90 special education students and teachers in the Temecula Valley Unified School District. “It was kind of fun. It was like a jungle. We’re like big party animals,” Jones said about the event. This was the district’s first time putting on the event, but the organizers aim to make it an annual tradition.
The Great Oak Associated Student Body funded the event, which cost $900, according to Nicole Boeldt, 16, the ASB junior class president. Strings of tiny sparkling lights trimmed the Great Oak performing arts center. A DJ on a stage towered over the elegantly dressed dancers.
Overhead, a projector shone an image of a full moon high on a wall. “You wouldn’t think we’re on a budget,” added Terese Estrada, 36, a special education teacher at Great Oak and one of the event’s organizers. The Couture Girls Closet, a nonprofit organization, donated dresses to some of the attendees and local florist Enchanting Blooms donated the corsages and boutonnieres. “We wanted to make it inexpensive,” Rachel Borg, a special education teacher and the head organizer, said. Borg got the idea for the event at an ASB retreat in Big Bear where she met with and talked to other special education teachers.
At one of the meetings during the retreat, Borg learned one of the other schools in her district was hosting luncheons for special education students. She liked the idea and decided to expand it into a prom. “A lot of our kids don’t get access to the prom,” she said. “It’s heart-wrenching to see how they feel like they don’t fit in.”
The dance does more than give the students a fun way to pass the evening, Borg said. “They can come and have fun and learn to mingle with everybody in this social setting.” According to organizers, the biggest challenge was letting the participants know the event was taking place. “It was the first year, and it was hard to get the word out,” Borg said.
Borg e-mailed local special education teachers and invited all the schools in the district, while the Boeldt wrote press releases. The dance was unanimously popular among attendees. Kelvin “Deuce” Tolbert, 17, a senior and a special education student at Chaparral High School, attended another prom this year but preferred the Spectacular Prom.
“I like this [dance] best because I get to dance with my girl,” he said as he walked through the crowd with his arm around a 16-year-old girl, a fellow TVUSD student.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Inventory abounds at The Couture Girl's Closet
Shop owner recently donated $30K worth of prom dresses
By The Californian | Wednesday, April 1, 2009 7:09 PM PDT ∞
TEMECULA ---- Prom season is looming, and for the many cash-strapped families across Southwest County who don't want to drop $250 on a gown their daughters will wear only once, a solution is available.
The Couture Girl's Closet lends prom dresses to teens who need one. The dresses are either new, or have been worn only once, and are
worth between $100 and $500 each, said the group's co-founder, Tracy MacKeller.
A few weeks ago, the Temecula-based nonprofit organization received a huge donation of dresses courtesy of Lovee's Bridal on Winchester Road. The owner of the Temecula store, Dell "Lovee" Schneider, donated 88 new prom dresses to the group, a gift estimated to be worth about $30,000, MacKeller said.
"I told her she is generous beyond words," MacKeller said.
The new dresses will join the already established collection of gowns that range in colors and styles, and from size 0 to 16, she said.
There are more than 200 dresses to choose from, she said.
"The whole point of using the dresses is, why not recycle? Why not go green? Why not pay it forward?" MacKeller said. "It doesn't do anybody any good to have it sitting in the closet."
MacKeller and her 16-year-old daughter, Nicole, started the effort last October. Since then, the duo have donated their time to collect
donated dresses and get them to teens who need them, Tracy MacKeller said.
They also collect accessories, such as shoes, purses and jewelry, to go with the gowns.
When they helped distribute dresses for Great Oak High School's winter formal several months ago, the response was very positive,
Tracy MacKeller said. With the economy in the dumps, the need for this type of organization is more critical than ever, she said.
"Several parents (said) ... 'My husband lost his job, or we are going to lose our house, and if you didn't have this, my daughter wouldn't
be going to the dance,'" she said.
High school students from across the region may request a dress. They must show proof of school enrollment and have a parent present
when picking out a dress, Tracy MacKeller said.
Because the program has nonprofit status, donations are tax-deductible. Visit www.thecouturegirlscloset.com or call
Tracy MacKeller at (951) 699-5758.