By Carol Mowdy Bond
Contributing Writer
Mandy Reents is on a mission to let inner city high school girls know they are beautiful and loved. And she’s very serious. Reents began a ministry, Beautiful Purpose, during the 2018-2019 school year, to provide formal dresses for girls who can’t afford them.
Beautiful Purpose is a dress ministry that accepts donations of gently used formals, prom and party dresses, and wedding and bridesmaid dresses. Sponsors donate to have the dresses cleaned. And dry cleaner owners have offered to help with those costs when needed. Then, working with school principals, Reents and her crew set up pop-up dress shops in inner city schools, for high school junior and senior girls to find dresses, and check them out like they would a library book. The girls wear the dresses to any formal events such as proms, homecomings, and ROTC balls. Reents said, “We take wedding dresses, and alter them so they can be used for other formal events. But I had one girl borrow a wedding dress for her wedding.”
“For the first year, 2018-2019, we provided dresses for 46 girls for the Capitol Hill High School prom, and for 20 girls for the all-sport homecoming event at Capitol Hill,” said Reents. “For the 2019-2020 school year, we were going to take our pop-up dress shop into two more Oklahoma City schools – U.S. Grant High School and Star Spencer High School. But COVID-19 changed it all, and we did nothing.”
“For 2021, we have about 320 dresses right now,” Reents said, “If there are no proms, then we’re going to choose five girls from each of those three schools, and do a photo shoot for each of them. We already have businesses that will provide hair and make-up sessions, and photos. If we’re able, we’ll choose more than five girls, and more than those three schools. We’re waiting to see what the Oklahoma City schools do in 2021.”
“Doing these pop-up dress stores is a really emotional experience,” Reents said. “It’s incredible to see. The girls came in with their shoulders stooped. They put on the dresses, and we told them how pretty they were, and they’d never been told that before in their lives. They’ve grown up in environments where they’ve not been loved or told that they’re loved. This is a ministry because it’s important for girls to know that we see and hear them. And that’s needed now more than ever because of the way things are at this time.”
Reents is waiting for Beautiful Purpose to have its non-profit status approved. And Reents said she knows of thrift shops that will take formal and party dresses.
Reents got the idea for Beautiful Purpose because her husband is the head football coach at Capitol Hill High School. And part of her motivation comes from her own life. At one point, Reents had to make choices in order to change the trajectory of her own life toward a positive outcome. “There are things we can give a young person, including encouragement,” Reents said. “And no matter the obstacles they face, they don’t have to become where they came from.”
“I want to thank all the people who have donated and supported us,” said Reents.
“My prayer is that this ministry will grow and we will be able to go into more schools as the years go by. But more than that, my prayer is that you and I will have the opportunity to help girls feel valued, loved, and worthy of more. We are on a mission to help young people discover their own beautiful purpose, and we want YOU to be a part of that.”
For more information on how to get involved contact Reents at (405) 535-5744, or email beautifulpurpose47@gmail.com. You may drop off dresses during business hours at Reents’ business, Urban Station Salon, 92 Monroe Avenue NW in Piedmont. Or you may call, and arrange for your dress to be picked up. Reents also owns Ivory Rae Designs, a wedding planning business.
