HomeGirl and Friends Did Good! Johnsons's® "Girl Talk Cause Party" for Dress For Success Austin

Recently, I had the honor of hosting a Johnson's® "Girl Talk Cause Party". All I need is any old excuse to throw a party, so I jumped at the opportunity to host a party for a good cause when I received the email from the Blogalicious marketing network, bLink, a few months ago. Johnson's® provided body care goodies for my guests, encouraging me to bring women together to celebrate friendship and to make a difference in our community by creating awareness and support for a charity that supports women. I was excited to create awareness, have a blast and send everybody away with a goodie bag, but I also wanted to really do something for the charity I selected. I wanted my party to make a tangible difference. So I contacted Dress For Success Austin to invite them to my event and find out how we could support them.

Dress for Success is a worldwide organization that provides interview suits, work clothes and support through career mentoring programs for women who have found themselves at a disadvantage. Judy, Executive Director, told me that they had a strong need for hair care products. Later, my tour of their facility confirmed that there was not one bottle of shampoo on their shelves. Y'all know hair is one of the many topics I write about on this blog. I understand the relationship between the appearance of our hair is to our confidence, especially in job interview situations. By collecting hair products, I felt like in some small way, my party would affect the mini-makeover process for a handful of women (and much fun are makeovers?!).  Thus, HomeGirl's Shampoo & Cupcakes  For A Cause party was officially on!

The Party

So I sent out invitations encouraging guests to bring shampoo & conditioner with them. This past Saturday, ten women joined me in my home for HomeGirl's Shampoo & Cupcakes For A Cause. Because of them and another five women who couldn't make it out, but sent their donations ahead (or had me pick them up), my Johnson's® "Girl Talk Cause Party", not only raised awareness, but collected over 150 bottles of shampoo & conditioner plus additional hair products, toiletries and enough suits and career clothing items to dress 10 or more women for interviews. Y'all?! How awesome is that?! We stocked their hair care section and will physically touch the lives of more than 75 women! I also donated the left over Johnsons® products that guests did not take away. I get chills just thinking about how much of a difference the handful of guests at my little party made.

More pics on the HomeGirl Facebook Fan Page.

The Moment

Yesterday, as I was leaving Dress for Success after stocking their shelves with hair care products I had collected, I sent my sister a text message. My adrenaline was pumping and I was emotional and felt so happy to have been a part of something so small and yet so HUGE at the same time. What she texted back was like the cherry on top of the awesomest sundae ever…or like extra caramel sauce on top of the awesomest upside down caramel macchiato ever (Starbucks fans feel me) :  

"You've just had a tremendous impact on the lives of women who need you. You should be proud!"

I was like, Word?! WORD! lol

The Thanks!

Thank you to the folks at Johnson's® for inspiring this moment. Thank you to my Mocha Moms and Blogging While Brown peeps and to EVERYbody who attended and/or supported my event in any way. Thank you to my husband who encourages my general randomness, supports my many random projects and is always down for hosting a party for no reason whatsoever. Thanks to my mom (because, duh, she’s awesome and you’re supposed to thank your mom during big moments) who basically believes that I can do anything and is my biggest cheerleader in LIFE. Thanks to my guests for donations that were given in love. A special thanks to one person whose gesture of giving moved her to beautiful tears (you know who you are)--I know the woman who receives your items will be empowered by the quality of the suits you donated and feel the love in which they were passed on to her. Big ups also to my friend, photographer Eric Hurst, who was the perfect party guest and photographer, as always. Ok. That's the end of my thank you infested love rant.

Oh! I would be remiss not to thank Judy and Leslie over at Dress For Success Austin for being so enthusiastic about my party and for being so warm and friendly and for everything that they are doing over there. Austinites, if you have time or money to give, please visit their website to find out how you can help. Here’s the link to the Volunteer info page to save you some time. :)

Do good, y'all! It feels awesome!

Comments

[JusticeNy]

Awesome work...congratulation!!! Looks like you had fun AND made a differencee. Thanks for hosting:)

[Leesha]

Congrats, Quel! What an awesome job! You rock!

[DNLee]

I LOVE your enery! Love, love, love it! I think DfS is a great organization. I've donated items to my local one before.
Congrats! and I look forward to checking out your blog more often.
Yay!

[Keisha]

You're awesome Quel! Congratulations to you for stepping up to do something for someone else...I wish we had more folks around to care for people we don't even know!

[Homegirl Quel]

THANKS YOU GUYS! :-D

[Leslie Fender]

We were overwhelmed with gratitude when Quel delivered these hair products and donations to our office. We had been completely out of shampoo and conditioner for a couple months. Thanks to this event, we are again able to provide each woman who comes through our doors (over 20% of which come from shelters) the essential products for polished, beautiful hair -- which can be just as important as that professional new suit, Talk about a confidence boost! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

Leslie Fender
Program Coordinator
Dress for Success Austin

[K. Rock]

Aww. Great cause!

[Nadia Petersen]

WoW !!! It's awesome.

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