1 Truck: 200 Wedding Gowns
Les & Amanda Rowe, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Franchise Partners in Long Beach, California, recently did a job at a warehouse that was preparing to be completely emptied. The dress manufacturer, en route to their new Midwest location, left behind 200 wedding gowns that had never been worn.
In the business of junk removal we see a lot of unusual items. Faced with 200 wedding gowns Les & Amanda knew they would need to get creative. "Selling things isn't our business, its picking things up and trying to find better places for them " said Les Rowe.
After researching many alternatives, Les & Amanda learned about the Making Memories Foundation and knew immediately where the wedding gowns were headed. All 200 gowns were donated to the Brides Against Breast Cancer wing of the Making Memories Foundation. The non-profit organization, based in Portland, Oregon, holds charity wedding gown sales in cities across the US every year. The proceeds finance the final wishes of terminal breast cancer patients. "Every single dress is going to be turned into someone's memory-making event."
Since its inception in 1998, Making Memories has granted the wishes of more than 100 terminal cancer patients through the sale of wedding dresses. Their wish-granting service helps put the realities of this terminal illness aside, if just for a few days, and provides the opportunity for a family to spend quality time making memories together.
Among the wishes were family trips to SeaWorld and Disney World, piano lessons for a daughter, a cruise with a sister,and a camcorder for a mother used to record messages for her 2 and 4 year-old daughters and future grandchildren – one for each birthday, prom, wedding and other milestones.
