My Dressember Experience
Dressember, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a campaign to raise awareness and funds for survivors of sex trafficking. Advocates wear a dress (or a tie, for men… except my partner — see below!) every day for the month of December to draw attention to the issue.
Why A Dress?
It’s a way to take back a symbol interpreted by some to represent fragility or powerlessness. Wearing a dress every day for a month empowered me some days and drained me others. I had no idea how much it would impact the way I felt about getting dressed every day. The very minor inconvenience of figuring out what to wear thrust the importance of this cause back in my face each morning — people who are trafficked for sex have far less choices.
What Was It Like?
For me, it was frustrating and exciting at different times every single day. A donation meant, “Woo hoo! I’ve reached someone! I’m making a difference!” A dry spell for donations and social media “likes” meant, “No one wants to hear this anymore. I’m failing the people I committed to helping,” and eventually led to some creative ideas.
It can be tough to balance those highs and lows. I negotiated social media posts focusing on a silly dress or pose with those focusing on the serious issue of sex trafficking and providing hard numbers. Sometimes I offered humor, other times I offered incentives. (One of which was to write a song for anyone who donated more than $50 in a period of time — still chipping away at those!) One ploy included my partner promising to grab breakfast in a dress if I met my $1,200 goal — and let me tell you, they were so distracted, they got our order wrong twice!
Through all the ups and downs, I did it because I was on break from classes and thought, these people need help. If I can’t make a difference now, then when?
What Did I Learn?
I learned that my team (the #FreedomFrockers) is a group of passionate, huge-hearted, relentless women fighting for justice. I learned that we all have different ways to give to this cause. I learned that fundraising is hard, and so is caring sometimes, but it’s worth it.
Funding A Rescue Mission
In one month my team raised enough to fund a rescue mission ($6,719 — which we actually surpassed!). Living in Houston, a major hub for human trafficking, I connected to members of my community over this issue. A woman who runs my local coffee shop said there was a raid on a house just around the corner during the Super Bowl, in which six women whose bodies were purchased for the evening were all victims of sex trafficking. That’s in a nice, family neighborhood called The Heights near a coffee shop whose brand focuses on inclusivity.
She also shared that one of her patrons is a lawyer who offers pro bono services to sex trafficking survivors. We all have different, tangible ways to give back —through funds, awareness, and services. I’m just glad I could be a small part of it.
By the way, there’s still time to support Dressember through the end of January 2019! Click here to donate.