SEMO Prom Mothers celebrates 20th anniversary of Becca’s Closet

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KFVS) - Becca’s Closet, a nationwide organization that helps young girls find the dress of their dreams, celebrated its 20th anniversary today.

And volunteers with a local chapter here in Cape Girardeau called SEMO Prom Mothers, came together to kick off the celebration with an Open House.

On Tuesday, young girls and their families were able to stop by the shop at Westminster Presbyterian Church to try on dresses.

Becca’s Closet was created to honor the death of Rebecca Kirtman, who died in a car crash in August 2003 at age 16. Before her death, Kirtman launched a drive to collect prom dresses for high school girls who could not afford the formal dresses.

Brenda Randolph, a volunteer with SEMO Prom Mothers, says she is thankful to be a part of this amazing legacy.

”There are some missions that aren’t quite as fun as others and this is a fun one and last year we hit a thousand--we had served a thousand girls,” Randolph said. “And we have girls coming in today that didn’t have an appointment but they stopped in...we want them to enjoy it and we put positive messages on the walls. It’s just a great mission, it’s my heart.”

Volunteer Karen Retter shared what this mission means to her.

”It’s just really nice that Becca’s Closet is 20 years old. It is a need that we’re helping a community have and we’re lucky to have it because a lot of communities don’t have it,” Retter said. “There’s only two in Missouri, one up in northwestern Missouri and then this one here, so we have served a lot of girls. We have served girls in Indianapolis, we’ve served girls here down in the Bootheel, Illinois--they come from all over.”

The women provide a free prom dress from their collection for any high school girl with a student I.D.

SEMO Prom Mothers receives some dresses from Becca’s Closet, but they also rely on local donations.

Today, they received an anonymous donation of 10 long and short dresses.

You can make an appointment to dress shop by messaging the SEMO Prom Mothers Facebook page.

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