Love The Dress TN with Raquel Babb and Connie Gulley

In this episode of the You Matter Nashville podcast, we interview Raquel Babb and Connie Gulley from Love the Dress TN, the nonprofit organization we’re deeply passionate about that provides prom dresses to girls who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them. We explore the history of Love the Dress, the incredible impact it’s had on the community, and the challenges we've faced in organizing such a meaningful event.

The conversation is filled with heartwarming stories of girls discovering their dream dresses and the immense gratitude their families express. We emphasize the ongoing need for more volunteers and donations to sustain the organization’s efforts.

We discuss the intricate process of collecting and distributing dresses, highlighting just how important it is to have a wide range of sizes and styles available. Our conversation also touches on the broader impact this project has on the girls who receive the dresses. We make sure to underscore the need for various forms of donations, including monetary contributions and items like jewelry and shoes.

We also share our motivation for continuing this work, which includes witnessing the joy and excitement of these girls and knowing that we’re making a positive difference in their lives. Additionally, we outline our vision for the future, including expanding to a larger venue and adding more event days so we can reach even more girls in need.

Takeaways

• Love the Dress is a nonprofit organization that provides prom dresses to girls who cannot afford them.
• The organization has been serving the Middle Tennessee community for over 14 years and has grown from 100 dresses in the first year to over 4,500 dresses in recent years.
• The founders and volunteers of Love the Dress are dedicated to creating a positive and empowering experience for the girls who come to the event.
• The organization relies on the support of volunteers and donations to continue its mission of helping girls feel beautiful and confident on their special occasions. 
• The project relies on donations of dresses, jewelry, shoes, and monetary contributions.
• Having a variety of sizes and styles is important to accommodate the different preferences and needs of the girls.
• Volunteers play a crucial role in helping the girls find their dresses and making them feel loved and cherished.
• The project has a significant impact on the girls, creating lifetime memories and boosting their self-esteem.
• In the future, the project aims to expand to a larger venue and add more days to accommodate the growing number of girls in need.

Love The Dress TN
https://lovethedresstn.com

You Matter Nashville YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@YouMatterNashville

The Hoover Team
https://www.thehooverteam.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to You Matter Nashville Podcast
• 3:07 The Importance of Volunteers
• 6:21 Heartwarming Stories and Emotional Impact
• 9:37 The Impact of Love the Dress
• 15:15 Year-Round Efforts and Donations
• 23:12 The Support of Two Men and a Truck
• 28:17 Opening the Door to Donations
• 29:14 Desperate Need for Oversized Gowns
• 30:10 Donations and Tax Receipts
• 32:59 Expanding the Project in the Future
• 37:01 The Impact on Special Needs Girls
• 37:59 The Joy of Finding the Perfect Dress
• 39:24 Making Girls Feel Beautiful
• 40:20 The Reach and Longevity of the Project
• 41:46 The Importance of Having a Variety of Styles
• 44:07 Expanding Donation Sites to Nashville
• 48:07 Supporting the Project through Donations and Volunteers
• 49:02 The Project's Reach Beyond Tennessee
• 51:22 Spreading Kindness and Making a Difference
• 53:05 Uplifted and Inspired by the Conversation

Transcript

Jason & Mindy Hoover (00:00.098)
Hey, Nashvilleans, welcome to the You Matter Nashville podcast, the place where every story we share is a celebration of you, the heartbeat of our community. I'm Jason Hoover, delighted to be one half of your hosting duo. And I'm Mindy Hoover, joining you alongside Jason to bring the stories of inspiring individuals and unsung heroes making a positive impact right here in our hometown. Every episode is about passions, dreams and actions that stitch together the Middle Tennessee community. So if you're looking to get inspired by the good happening around us,

Or if you want to hear from the change makers who believe, just like us, that you matter, then hit that follow button on your favorite podcast platform. And if you are looking to make a move in the middle Tennessee area, and Dan and I are real estate professionals and would be honored to serve you with excellence. Now let's dive into another episode of You Matter Nashville.

Welcome back everybody to another great episode of You Matter Nashville, where it's all about the people making a difference in our community. I'm your host, Jason Hoover. And I'm Mindy Hoover. And we are local real estate team here in the greater Nashville area. But this podcast, it has nothing to do with real estate. It has everything to do with the heart of our community. And we are excited about this episode. And I'll forewarn you, it may get a little crazy.

It's been a challenge, not really a challenge, but a fun time getting this going. These, uh, uh, just hearing these ladies talk about their nonprofit has just been fun already. So with that said, I'm going to go ahead and pitch it over to Mindy and let's get this thing started. this is an episode very dear to my heart because love the dress is something I've been a part of since 2010. I was a teacher at Centennial high school here in Franklin and saw the need where

girls were not going to dances or proms because they just couldn't afford dresses. I reached out to our pastor who's like so crazy. Last couple of weeks, we've had some other ladies bring up this same thing. So we all got together and started planning our first event, which was in March of 2011. So this year marks 14 years of having events here in Franklin, Tennessee.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (02:11.246)
and not just serving our small community here, but reaching all of middle Tennessee and even girls come from Alabama and Kentucky now to come to this event of dresses that were, well, we had 100 dresses the first year to having over 4 ,500 dresses this year, which is just incredible. But I wanted to have my dear friends and my co -conspirators that helped me pull

all of this off and that is Ms. Connie Gulley and Raekael Badd who is incredible and we literally could not pull this off with all three of us not on board in doing this all year round. So I first want to talk to Raekael and she's kind of been with me the longest. You came on board in 2013. So literally just two or three years in you came in

And I would love for you to tell me a little bit about the story of how you found us because it's kind of cute because it was your daughter. was, it was McKinsey that actually turned you on to the event and the nonprofit and what we do. was my oldest daughter, McKinsey, and she happened to be helping one of her friends who was setting up the jewelry and the shoes part of it, as her silver award. think it was her silver award for her Girl Scout fame.

And she'd asked if Mackenzie would come and help her like display them and set them up cute beforehand. And Mackenzie went and did that. And then all of sudden I get this phone call. Mom, you have got to see this. This is something you are going to love. She said, all these girls are coming and getting prom dresses and special dresses. And this just seems like something you might like. So I got in my car, drove up there.

Didn't have any idea what this was. Mackenzie wasn't going to prom that year. She had a dance competition, but I went in and I was just like, wow. And I met you Mindy and I met the other ladies that were involved and just kind of said, hey, next year, how can I help volunteer? So from there on out, the next year I came in, volunteered when it got like donations from out the community of like food and drinks and picked up some dresses here and there from a few people. And then that just started.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (04:32.61)
going from there and been involved ever since. Right. And just like we got involved, both you and I have a very close knit of friends here in Franklin. And we have kind of just, I say, roped them in to kind of help us throughout the years. We both have like a small team of friends that come in the day of. But of course, as we grew, we could no longer

have our friends come in the day of, even just the day before to help. So then we were like, Hey Connie, like you hang, you hang out with us most of the time anyway, during this event and you're pulling doubles. So, and staying like 12 hours like us, like you might as well like be in charge of something. The official number.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (05:22.612)
Yes. 'all have like a voting or anything like that? no. We're like, she puts in way too many hours. She has to some kind of title or something. Tell us a little bit about, tell us a little bit about your story of getting wrangled in and what you loved about the event and what has kept you coming back of then Raquel telling you you have to. Raquel did wrangle me into it, but once I got there and saw the girls and how much it meant to them to find a dress

The whole event, all the volunteers and all the girls and I just, I mean, I love it. It's a labor of love and it's what keeps me coming back year after year. Definitely the stories each year that we see or the blessings or that one special story each year that just touches you and goes, this is why we do it. And this is why we're going to do it again next year. Every year we go in and go, my goodness. I would love to hear some of those stories. Yes. I was just about to say what.

Raquel, what is your favorite story? What is the story that you So many. Yes, there's so many. But probably one, the one that probably sticks out the most is two years ago when this mom and grandmother came and they were about maybe about a hundred miles away from here and they brought two girls. They brought one, the daughter and then a friend and they had already been searching for dresses and they were just having a hard time finding something that economically -

they could put into their budget, but then also, you know, that fit or that the girls loved. And here they came to our event, drove a hundred some miles on the border of Alabama and Tennessee they were at. And both girls found their dream dresses. And I mean, just the tears flowing from the grandma and the mother, and then the special friend that they brought to and.

It was just like the dresses were made from it was just perfect. And I could always just remember how that really touched them all. And then they were sending pictures to the dad and FaceTiming the dad back home and he was overwhelmed. And then two weeks later, or well, I guess it probably about three weeks later, four weeks later when prom happened, we get a special picture from them at prom even that, mean, and they just said, you know, as a thank you

Jason & Mindy Hoover (07:45.186)
how we blessed them that they had already been searching for months for something and just couldn't find anything. And that's just one of the, I mean, that's just one of the stories. Every year there's always a few. There are, and there is, yeah. And we cry every year. Just, I mean, I'm not chill bumps too, just listening to There's just so many moments of crying. You really, really, I mean, impacted those, girl, but also the grandma and the dad. grandma especially. Yeah. She just is like, yeah.

We work with a lot of... The single dads that have helped. That was exactly what I was about to bring up. What makes me tear up was when the single dads who come in with these teenage girls. I remember about four or five years ago, this guy comes in and he's like, just take her. I don't know what to do. This is not my thing.

And I'm like, we're going to take care of her. It's, you know, it's perfectly. can understand. Yeah. Right. If you can imagine. And of course, you know, the dads are not allowed in the dressing room and stuff. So they kind of just hang out in the boutique while the girls are shopping and they have to go back up anyway. But it's just that please help. Like we need help with us. And so the single dads, my heart always goes out to and it touches me that, you know, that they take the time to bring their daughter.

you know, financially, you know, you know what I'm help relieve that because being a single parent, is, you already have so many bills tough. And so if we can relieve this for those families, it means the world. really, really does. How many dresses do you have now? was even the appreciation was felt was overwhelming. I mean, really saw the need this past year.

I can't tell you how many people as I was walking through the waiting room or room that just pulled me to the side and gave me a hug. I didn't know these people and said, you don't know how this is helping our family or you don't know what this means or, you know, and that's right there was like this year was just a big need. I really saw more so than ever, but also how appreciative the people really were this year. mean,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (10:07.341)
I couldn't tell It's a harder year, know, just economically. we kind of were prepared for that. And we knew it was going to be a harder year and we're probably going to have a lot more girls. And I would probably say we had probably what 75 to a hundred more young ladies come through our doors. I mean, we were packed out on our schedule. We were like fitting people in. We were using rooms that weren't dressing rooms just to get the girls through.

And we actually had to have a cutoff time because our movers were showing up to put everything up. And we're like, sorry, we can't see any more people because they heard it from someone. And then they showed up after the event was over. Like we do our best, but you know, that's all we can the more you grow, the more space you get. And thank you to the Gate Church for allowing that, know, granting that space.

But that's even larger what you've had and it's like you grow and grow, but you still don't have enough space, enough help to match, to help these people. how far can it go? Like right now we have about 140 volunteers over a three day period. And oddly enough, like a lot of people want to come and help set up and get everything going and making everything look beautiful.

it's harder to actually to get people to come and shop with the girls. And all people are like, well, how come you, you know, you have someone like a personal shopper. So when the girls first get there, they sign in and we have assigned dressing rooms where they have all other things. They go to the boutique and they're, and they shop, but they actually have a one -on -one experience, just like if they were going to a bridal boutique and they are helping them shop the entire time, holding the dresses.

and helping them like everything from trying to get the zippers because believe me, some of these dresses are pretty difficult to get in and out of. So having someone to guide and just tell you how beautiful you are the entire time. That's like one of our, it's making me go to cry. One of our biggest thing is that, you know, that we want these girls to not just get this dress. We want them to really feel beautiful and to have this positive experience, even though it feels a little rushed.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (12:29.325)
And I think our volunteers do a really incredible job at that. We just need honestly, like 40 more volunteers during the event to really make it happen and flow the way that it needs to. And my, um, my aunt joined y 'all this past time. she was there I think all three days even. was just ecstatic. She loved it. She loved it. Where was she from? From Atlanta area.

always seen stuff. like last year when we were needing hangers, she literally Amazon hangers to us. I was yeah, she's like, I had no idea. I had no idea how big this was. Like she thought it was not. She's like, you know, we give some dresses away. And she was

this is a process. Yeah. And she loved it. And she was there. She's like, I got to come every day. She says, you're here all day. I can do that. And she's a chicken. She helped every which direction. She helped Connie with getting the boutique room set up or the dresses all on thing. She was back helping girls get stuff. She was helping check in. She was helping check out. She was just doing a little bit of everything. So she was those volunteers that can do it all.

Yes, and are willing to do it all. everything else. there is no way we could do what we do without that. I know that sounds like a huge number of volunteers, but when you're talking about processing and putting up over 4 ,000 gowns and putting up the infrastructure, building the dressing rooms every year, setting all these multiple rooms up in this next year, we've already talked about, we're going to have to change our entrance.

and the flow of how we do things because we need a much larger waiting space. We don't want people just standing there in that little waiting room. Even though we have appointments, it starts to blocked out. This year we had maybe 30, 40 that weren't on the appointment list because... At least. ...that heard about it from a friend or whatever and just showed up. And we definitely wanted to work them in. And we definitely did. I think we got to everybody that we could.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (14:48.109)
Everyone went with the dress. You said you had 4 ,000 dresses? Over 4 ,000 dresses. least over 4 ,000. So you started with about 100. girls. How many girls? We had over 500 this year. Last year we had about a little bit like 420. And this year we were somewhere between what, 530, 540? 550. Wow. Yeah. And we document everybody who comes in because I like to keep numbers and everything.

Well, and I want to share this too, because this is not just for three days. You guys are working on this throughout the year. Yes. And so, you know, a lot of people think it's just a three day event and then poof, gone, you're done for the year. But no, this is constant. You're constantly working out storage and donations. People at your house. Yeah, mean, have dresses dropped off year round. I

At least one, one person a week drops off dresses at my house. And, I pretty much just have a standing. If my car is not there, just put it in my sunroom. I keep that in mind where we would put them in Connie girl. We just kept that collection going and we'd go here. collection, Rekha would ride around. Because why dresses over that collected last week over to your house until the time. now you have a storage.

Yes, we've had a smaller storage all these years, but we got upgraded to what? A 10 by 25. And then last week we had to then get a, what is it? Is it a five by five or four by nine or five by 10 or something? Five by It's an odd number. It's an odd number, but we were like, give us the weird room that's cheap. That's what we said. But we got a phone call two weeks ago from Franklin Road Academy.

private school up the road that was like, we're tearing down a building and we've had some prom dresses from helping best buddies, which is a really great nonprofit here in middle Tennessee. But we have nowhere to store them and they don't either. So we went through and processed four five hundred dresses for three days. And went through all of that.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (17:10.253)
and we're able to get some racks, some new racks and all that stuff. And well, it has to be stored. So we went and got a new storage. What 10 tubs worth of dresses that we were able to get from them. Yeah. then we were able to get, we were able to get 12 huge construction bags full of dresses for another organization. Was it night to shine? it with tension bows?

their organization. So we were able to get a ton of dresses for them to so not just blessing us, but blessing their prom night. And then of course, we always ask best buddies to come to see us as well. we all kind of help each other out in the prom dress. And just want to sure every girl knows that they have that to them. right. And so for the ones that don't,

are new to this and don't know how it works, kind of give them an overview of how this happens and how they can maybe, you know, if they have a daughter that needs to participate in this. How does it kind of a quick overview of that? Well, and trying to think, sorry, cut Ryan. Okay, so the girls have opportunity.

I always have February 15th at 5pm. I open up spots for girls to make appointments. And of course they want those Friday evening spots. We actually had to open up Friday night, what three years ago, because all of our Saturdays were so packed. We had to make some relief and how did they sign up? And so they go to our website. We have a link on there. What's it was? And that is love the dress TN .com.

And so the girls go on there and then they go to the appointment site and I make it the same time every year so there's no surprises and nobody can get upset that I didn't know it's on there all year round. so they sign up, they pick a date and or a time, a time slot and what is it like a 30 minute, an hour? They get half an hour to

Jason & Mindy Hoover (19:30.317)
And they come in, we wrote their name on this nice little board on the dressing room and what time they got there. And that doesn't sound like a lot of time to shop, but it really is. They really do. Yeah. We have everything sized and in color. We have a short and long dress section. if they're like, cause a lot of girls come in, they're like, I have to have a red dress this year and I want to be long.

Well, they can go straight to that section. And the personal shopper. And the personal shopper knows where everything is and they grab all the dresses they need and they go back, start trying on. They can go back and forth as many times as they need. They can even buy two or three dresses. you'll cause some girls go to multiple proms or they'll get a couple of short dresses for homecoming and other things. And of course all the girls in need get one for free. Girls can bring dresses. A lot of them trade.

They'll like, have a dress I'm going to donate and then, you know, and they'll get one. Um, but we do ask for donations for anybody who can give a donation, $10, $20. Um, and that helps with, um, everything from storage to, uh, posters to printing off things to, uh, oh my goodness, those Xerox supplies are $250 a piece. mean, you know, it's just keeping

everything going on. Everybody's a volunteer. And nobody is paid. Nobody's paid. Just in love and tears. That is all. And you also, you have people that help. You have radio. Yes. So we were with GraceWorks for many years and then when they changed direction,

our umbrella, because she would say we were under that umbrella. We were then taken over by Weyeth We were so incredibly happy to have Amy and some of the other DJs and personalities that were actually volunteering at the event undercover. Because the first year I didn't even know she was volunteering, reached out afterwards and I was like, how can we help? This is amazing. We want the community involved. And yes, because mean, radio spots, I can't afford

Jason & Mindy Hoover (21:46.893)
So we were very, very happy to have them on board. And then when Grace works in a different direction, they were like, please come under our umbrella. and so we became a nonprofit underway FM and have been there with them since 2019, 2020. And just very grateful. they are, and they even bring like five volunteers.

and to help during the event and they DJ the event and they're just, they're just awesome. They're just amazing. they help market it as well. so you also, we talked about the gate church. They provide the space and someone feeds y 'all as well. my goodness. I swear our workers, will work for Chick -fil -A. So all of our volunteers during the event, we have Chick -fil -A.

like Friday and Saturday and we have some people start getting low on fuel or they can get there early. They can do that too. So, of the biggest blessings of the people that we have that help us is two men in a truck. Yes, there is absolutely no way that we could ever load all that stuff from our storage unit to, the gate at the church and then reload us back up. So they are to me, one of

biggest blessings. 100 % and my husband Jason can attest to that and so can John. Because we would do it for a couple of years. They were the ones loading in and out of a lot of the stuff. were so exhausted. were like, okay guys, we need help. You know, we're just carrying things up the hill in the rain. Oh yeah. remember that? It was slippery.

I think that was when was We should have had video. No, no video. No video. had to find some. I'm going to look. I think they were both out for like a week or two after that. I Their backs. Your guys' backs and probably we were not their favorite - Yeah, we were the favorite wives. like those the next couple days. But y 'all it with a smile. Thank you. We were like, you know, let's call them. We heard that they were really great for nonprofits and they love to help the community.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (24:09.077)
So I called them and was so surprised when they were like, yes, we would love to help. I mean, and they don't just help like nonprofits like us and for events and things, but they also help get women who are like in bad situations. They will actually help. They'll go in and move them out. Really? Yes. That's just amazing. it's good people helping good people. And we've used them in our real estate business as well. mean, for, you

helping move and we've used them personally a few times actually. have. We We We, we refer them out a lot. Thank you very much. Yes. then it also our storage, we would not be able to do what we do without our storage and a plus storage. They opened up their doors and gave an incredible donation of, and discount that we can't even, if y 'all know how much storage is in middle Tennessee, it is insane.

And our cost was just going up every single year. And so we were really dependent on those donations to help with that. But since A Plus Storage has come on board and has really helped us cover that cost, we've gone, I think this past year, half of the girls that came, it was completely free to, dresses. But that's amazing. And we don't tell the girls you have to give us this much money.

you know, or anything like that. It's all purely donation, but we were, we had that much need and it was so nice though that we could do that and not have to stress that we have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for storage throughout the year. And so yeah, so shout out to them as

So is there anything that you don't currently have that would help in the future? Rico, Connie. What was that question? I'm so sorry. Is there anything that somebody that could help out in a way like what we've just been sharing that would be beneficial? the year are always great with the dresses, but also maybe donations of, gosh, like...

Jason & Mindy Hoover (26:28.897)
Yeah, volunteers for sure. the young girls from the high school volunteer too. They get their volunteer hours for, is it FCC? The Girls Cantillion. So we get a lot of volunteers during the thing, maybe even just, probably just, we've talked about doing some extra little special things for these girls when they come in, you

makeup, hair tutorials, different things like that. And we used to have like little gift certificates and stuff that we would sometimes be able to organize businesses throughout the community. Spas or hair places would donate and we would have raffles or different like little drawings throughout the time. So we're open to having businesses come on board and help us with that and do some special things for advertising for them. But then also,

something to entice these girls to get them excited or the moms even. It is a huge expense. These dresses are now anywhere between $300 and $2 ,000 now. It is insane how much these dresses are. A lot of the dresses that we have are very boutique, name brand dresses that you would be very surprised that people have donated or

the designer had actually donated themselves. And so we're very, grateful for that. But the extra expense of having your hair done, getting your nails done, and a lot of these girls can't afford that. yeah, any kind of discount that they could give or discount cards, you know, for these girls to have those services would be incredible. And happy to, you know, market them as well. yeah. yeah. We have, yeah, we put it on all of our stuff and everything. one little,

observation in the last time that we had to put the dresses in the storage. You've seen the cartoons where you're like shoving stuff in a closet trying to clean the house and you're afraid to open the door. That's kind of what I'm afraid of opening that door next year. Yeah. So when we got all these donations, I was like, we're not opening that door. We're just going to get another storage unit. I'm not even going look at that until that day.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (28:47.181)
Yes. It's going to come falling out. is. Or spring. It's like a spring. Things were like shoved in and packed in anyway. And too, if somebody's thinking, why do you need more dresses? You've had so many. It's because you have so many girls that are coming. don't even have, I mean, to give them the options, I mean, because you've got different sizes, different styles. mean, everything. Yeah.

You know, we talk about so many dresses. It's not, we're not saying we're overloaded. And our biggest need, I know they can both attest to that this is sizes that are oversized 20. We are always in desperate need for those gowns. And so if anyone has those dresses just sitting in their closet, hanging in there, then please donate those to us because

we have girls that desperately need those sizes in the upper range. Cause like you can be a size eight or a size 10 or even six and have so many dresses to choose from. And then those larger sizes, they may only have 15 to choose from. So as much as they cost and they donate, can they get a tax? Yes. Okay. Since we are an umbrella under a nonprofit and we can actually give them a,

a donation receipt for their taxes. yeah, and we do have businesses and we do have people who like say they'll donate 10 dresses and so they'll ask for that as well. And we also take jewelry and you know, special shoes too, like the nicer shoes, obviously not just sandals, but dress shoes. So we always have that because a girl would love to have the whole complete outfit, you know, of a nice pair of earrings with a pair of shoes that match their dress that

found to and yes, those donations also. Yeah. And most definitely in the shoes. that's another huge expense. That can be another a hundred dollars for a girl. And then we have them for like, like next to nothing or free. So, and jewelry we have donated, we even go and we purchase some sets and everything to have them there for the girls as well. And just because we don't get enough of those donations. So we

Jason & Mindy Hoover (31:09.089)
go out and purchase them and have them there. So besides dresses and everything, are there, I know with racks and mirrors, is there anything that you guys need? Like if somebody could donate as far as setup wise? Are you pretty solid on it? I think we're pretty solid on setup. If there was ever anyone

have very sturdy, very good, high quality Z racks. mean, commercial racks. Definitely, we could always use those. always tend to have a few breaks throughout the year or throughout the process of moving in or out. And those are very expensive pieces to replenish. So if there's ever a business that's looking for a place to donate some Z racks that they no longer need.

a rack that roll, right? Racks that roll. Racks that roll. In and out of a truck. Yes. Definitely. So I know we've made a lot of changes throughout the year. Like we said, used to it was like more of a swap in shop. Girls would bring dresses to trade. They would maybe buy one for 20 or 10. Then we went to donation. Then we went to giving away as many as we could. Where would both of you like to see

in five years. Cause you know, we're going to be doing this. We already say we're going to be like the grey haired ladies giving away dresses someday. So where do we see ourselves in five years? Five years. Where are we going to be? are we be Connie? Five years. We might have to have a bigger venue. Maybe add a day or two. I mean, if we keep having five, 600 girls, I mean, I want every girl to be able to come.

I don't want to turn anyone down. Be like a full two day event. more the word gets out. Being this will be our 15th year. 15th year. Next year. don't know how many, cause I came in on the second, third year, how many was that first year? But I mean every year I feel like it. It grows. More each year, you know? Or maybe just, yeah.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (33:25.119)
another day. Maybe another day or a longer day or I don't know. I agree. I love where we are. We're so grateful for where we are. We've been the past seven years, but I think that we're kind of busting out the seams. So I think probably one of our biggest need is if a church or a business had the facility that we could be at.

That would be really, really great. It's like we make where we are work, but it would be great if we had a lot more square footage because more square footage means more space and more girls, more dressing rooms. They could spread out. Or if not, yeah, we could have spread out and we need to be able to have more volunteers that are able to take girls. You know, we could not, we usually have what 16 slots per 30 minutes or is it 20 slots? know at one time we were 20 slots, then we had to go down to 16,

Yeah, before we have about 18. 25, 30 little dressing rooms, I mean, that, like, in those 30 minutes, that would really be able to, you know, keep the flow and keep a lot more girls coming in to, I mean, not then we wouldn't have to do more days per se, but have bigger space to have more dressing rooms built out that we could have more.

volunteers to be taking girls back to be finding their dresses. means more volunteers. That's right. means more volunteers. Which means that too. Anybody out there? Yeah. We should do like the vacation Bible school. Remember that where you got awarded for bringing guests? Yeah, have some little trinkets and things like that. Get little gold stars.

So we need a larger space eventually. Again, very grateful for what you guys have. Very grateful for the game. we do have it works. It works. just does. Yeah. And so obviously, even now you need more volunteers because I do know this past season or past event, it was a little shy volunteer. that the tear down, it seemed like this last year that the tear down.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (35:39.385)
Yeah. And that we've had a lot of help in the past. this year it was like, wow. that like, we're yeah, ladies are pretty much who helps with the, you know, the front end and during the event. I mean, guys who are needing volunteers, our hours can come from two to six and help break down, help the cause I mean, anything that we can do to make the move faster

the movers because they are there late on a Saturday night. Any football teams out there? teams, JRO, TCs, anybody who's getting the hours because we are Tennessee and everybody has to have hours done. We're the volunteer state. We're the volunteer state. So come on. Definitely some more. So, you know, this may

you kind of already known, but I want to just kind of to give you a each one of y 'all a platform. What is it? This is going to your 15th year. What's the core reason that keeps you motivated and keeps you wanting to do this? I because you're not getting paid, you're not getting, you know, media or anything like that. So it's, you know, it's not something that you're taking away physically or anything like that. So.

What is it, what's the core reason you keep doing it? I'd love to hear from each one of you. I guess one of the one things when the special needs group comes in and I get to see them finding their dress, that gets me every single year. Yes. I just love that. to give back in any way, I mean, it's a small way, but just to help out the community.

I think especially, I love to see the happy tears and the excitement of a girl when she puts on a dress and her face just goes like this and she just knows it's the one. just the excitement, she starts twirling around and dancing and doing and you just sit there and go, you just made that girl's day, that year, that her prom, you just made that, that special event be more special.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (37:59.129)
And it's lifetime memories. that yeah, it's like it is. I could it's engraved in me of some of these some of these smiles and and just the the moms or the guardians that are Have had a hardship that come in to a situation where they have someone come into their home that you know this last year we had some exchange students that came in, you know, and the families the host families were like I can't afford

have to go get this girl a dress, know, but there these girls are in from Germany and this and that and they came and found dresses. I mean, there's just so many little stories like that that you don't know who you are helping or how you're helping or they've had a parent that's unfortunately in jail and you know, grandmother's taking over and we've had that come in there and you know, so it's just it's it's those stories that keep me going each year. Yeah.

And I grew up in a really, in a poor community. and so it, you know, I saw it growing up and, I was fortunate, you know, to, to have dresses and things, but I saw what was going on. you know, becoming a teacher and, and having girls open up about that and shameful about it. There's, you know, we're ashamed that their parents couldn't do that for them. And I was like, this should not be a shameful thing. This should, this should not even be a thing.

So for me, it is knowing that we are making something normal for them, something that they don't have to worry about, that they can feel beautiful and even leave with enough dresses so they can go to any party at the school or, you know, dances and whatever, whatever special occasion. And we even have a ton of homeschooled kids that come that, you know, the mom

is a stay at home mom and is homeschooling and they have homeschool prom that's here. you know, so them going and spending four or $500 is just not feasible. just being a part, like Connie was saying, like being a part of the community and knowing that you are giving a service and to me a ministry, this is really a ministry, just an extension of God to people and helping in a tangible way.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (40:20.811)
making them feel loved and beautiful. think that's what drives us every year. Yeah, I was gonna say, and I think we have some incredible volunteers that really do take the girl in and really do make them feel like they do matter. They do matter. Everyone matters that comes through that door. And that's our ultimate goal is not just that they find a dress, is that they feel loved and that they feel cherished and that they are blessed and that they know that they do matter.

You know, no matter, it's not the dress that makes that. It's not the dress that makes it. It's, it's that people, know, it is, it's the people and all of our volunteers that come in, I don't think we've ever had a volunteer come in and go, my goodness. That was so taxing. You we've had, we have fun. mean, I'm usually the one, yeah. I'm usually the one like stressed out and like running around in circles, making sure everything is done and everything's being covered.

but yeah, it, is a lot of fun. And we have so many ladies who are like, can I stay another shift? I saw that somebody didn't show up to do this job. Can I stay and do it? Yeah. We can't like to try the dresses on every dress every year to try on. try it to at least find a funny dress, you know, least our very character to us, to to us, know, that's the other thing that I find that's just so

wonderful about this too is that we do have so many dresses because there are so many different styles and every girl that comes in is their own unique their self and they have a different style their own unique style some of the dresses that Connie would pick out for somebody or I would pick out you know that we were like my gosh who would ever sit there and go like this dress it's the first dress to go out because yes you just don't know

You know, we take in so many dresses, but so many dresses go out, but every style, I mean, you can't even decide which style is a good style or not style because every style is a good style to somebody. What's the word? Like the most strange, what we think would be strange or just eclectic looking dress, you know, or the most boring dress in our eyes.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (42:45.983)
You know, those will be the ones who go out the door because there's sometimes, you know, they're like, just want a simple dress with a pretty necklace. simple. Some people want the most, you know, ball gown there could be. And they come in the most sparkly, most glitzy. And then some people just want it to be as plain as can be.

And everyone was that's why you have so many dresses. Over 4000 dresses. It's exactly why. And then that girl puts that dress on that you're like, oh, and then it's like, wow, like that was made for that person. know? Yeah. And we do try to scale down every at the end of the event. And especially if a dress has been there forever. And or if it's we have too many that are really similar.

There's just lots of reasons we kind of go through. Maybe they're not really formal dresses. They're not as formal as they should be. We do have other organizations that we bring stuff to. We actually get a lot of casual stuff donated sometimes. And we've brought it up to the Baptist Children's Home, area high schools, you know. we don't throw anything away. make sure the organization... Success. Dress for Success. We've donated. We just got them donating six bags.

dress for success of just some nice churchy or business suit dresses that were donated. so, sometimes they accidentally end up with us and we just redistribute. what we've kind of touched on this just a little bit, but to the people that are listening, how could they support you

Well, first with donations and we start donations usually in January through February and Raquel is in charge of all of that. So if you want to kind of share where we do all of our donations and we have a need to have to, yeah, we need more donation sites. We have, yes, yes, definitely some more.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (44:57.581)
dress donation spots that they could do. But we have a few different ones. In January, the Brentwood Library has been so gracious to take them in. The whole month of January, you could drop off dresses at the Brentwood Library. And we usually get way over 100 dresses. We go over there twice throughout the month and pick up couple loads from them. then, all the Williamson County, or well, most of the Williamson County High Schools do a dress

Donation drive in the month of February for at least two weeks So most all the Williamson County high schools, we're hoping all of them will join in but at least seven or eight of them are and Then we pick up dresses from them there the week of love that dress event and then there's some Area neighborhoods we have West Haven and then Filthstone farms they

Boxes located in their clubhouses that you can drop off donations of dresses and shoes and jewelry at and we'll pick those up and then also Jimmy's cleaners is a their different sites will take in dresses in the month of February also and Who am I missing? Who else? I that's I think that's it right now, but we would love to have some more neighborhood big neighborhoods that might be able

um, put some donation boxes throughout or even businesses. Oh, well, I actually we've had, yeah, we've had some real estate places. One has done a wonderful in getting us, they had over 180 dresses this year donated. So we need it more than anything. Uh, places in Nashville. We did for years have one and unfortunately the, um, the person passed away who had the store

but we'd really need to have a donation site in Nashville. get so many calls on it. And so that is probably our biggest need. Yeah. do a lot of driving into Nashville. Right. And Murphy's borough and Columbia, those are probably the places where we have the most like girls attend.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (47:16.523)
So I think having donation sites in those, because we do get calls asking, do you have any place in Murphy's borough or Columbia or Nashville? So. And back to real estate. So Synergy is going to it's another drop off place brand new. They are joining us. They're going to be added. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to have Synergy is going to be doing energy realty network. Yeah. They're going to be a place for us to have donations in the Cold Springs area. as far as community, if anybody out there

has a place that would be a good drop off. Just reach out to one of you guys. Yeah, we'll have a website. It can reach us through the website. Send us a message. Anything else as far as community or for our listeners that they could help with?

That's pretty much the biggest one. Volunteers and just getting the word out. And then volunteers. Okay, just a little bit of a questionnaire off that topic. Do y 'all, what's the furthest somebody has traveled? Probably three, three and a half hours. wow. I know we've had some from Alabama and we've had some Kentucky.

Jackson, Tennessee. know from Memphis. We've had some people from Memphis. Yeah, that's fantastic. yeah. So what I was curious, it's a lot of people, I would assume, think it's just a local, you know, in this area because it's in Franklin, where we live. And but it's not just for people, you know, locally here. I mean, this is expansive.

Yeah. We've even had people from other states call and be like, we want to start something like you have, you know, can you help us get started? And, you know, and I've sent, you know, like just some of my organization things and, kind of how I do things for them to kind of get started in their area. So it's most definitely needed. But we most definitely have a big reach because the longevity of these events.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (49:31.349)
or maybe one or two years, like a lot of people will start these events, but it's just so much to keep them going, which is so why it's so important to have good core people, right? Right. I may have been known to.

carry loads of dresses in my car for a while as well. I'm sure you have. all been there. We've all been there. We've got to get it out. Got to go put it somewhere. But so, you know, as we start winding this up, is there anything that we haven't covered that you want to share to the listeners? So we do have a spot on the website. If somebody just wants to give a monetary donation, they can.

We normally get items like she was saying like beauty items or jewelry, shoes, dresses. But if somebody just like, don't have any of those things, but I just want to help out. Something that we really should do is get like an Amazon wishlist and put on there as well. That's good. That would probably be really good for us to do. Like a registry. tagging guns. we always... yeah, tagging guns always. Yeah, the tagging gums seem to go up and down. that's a idea. They always break.

Yeah, money, it money would help because you tried not to take money from, you know, girls and but there's there's a like you've talked about there's a lot of expense. doesn't nobody gets paid. So any money they donate goes directly towards all of this. Okay. And we, like I said before, like we're so blessed that we were at a point where the girls don't have to donate or do anything, they can just come in and we don't make a big deal. All the girls get a ticket.

when they come in, they kind of like, you know, that they're coming to the, they've been registered or whatever. And then theirs would just have like a little voucher thing on it. So we know that they get a free dress, like nobody, they're in line, nobody knows, I got a free dress, you didn't, It's not like different name tag. Right. It's not like you have yellow, so I'm free. So we try to be very discreet. If a girl needs a free dress, we're very discreet about it. And because,

Jason & Mindy Hoover (51:50.485)
Nobody wants to be singled out like that. So, no. Well, this has been fantastic. I love what you guys do. And I'm very, very, very minor part in this, but I have watched Mindy throughout the years working on this and tirelessly. Yeah, she's a rock star. Yeah.

And, you know, not as much. haven't seen you guys as much other than whenever I'm helping actively, but I know you guys put in a lot of work as well. But this is this is this is all from your heart. true. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. You know, it blesses me just to see this. Yes. Well, and I know our community is very it's very grateful for what you guys do. And

You know, these girls, you're impacting these girls that they're going to remember you guys. They may not remember your names or anything, but they're going to remember what you did and how you made them feel. That's right. And that's our goal is for them to feel for the rest. They look back on this time and hopefully that they can, you know, push that forward because every girl that and every person that you touch, you're hoping that then they are going to extend and help somebody else in need down the road.

All right. Well, thank you so much, Connie and Raquel and for joining us today. I appreciate your time. I appreciate for what you guys do and helping and also very appreciative of my wife, beautiful wife and for what she does and the big heart that she has. know, and that's kind of, that is her heart and it's my heart. And it's why we're doing this podcast because we, there are so many organizations like this

you know, it's not a big organization. It's not, a moneymaker. It is something that, a group of people came together, saw a need and making a difference. And that's what we're wanting to do on this podcast. So to our listeners, we want to ask you, do you know anybody that individual or a group of people, or it could be a, an organization that, or larger organization.

Jason & Mindy Hoover (54:03.819)
That would be a good fit that we can bring onto the podcast and shine a light on what they do, how they impact our community. We just want to spread that love. Also too, speaking on that, please, if you would give us a five -star review, please. I, you know, I'd say a five -star because it, it actually helps the algorithm. helps spread our podcast so it gets us more exposure.

We're not making money off of this either. We're doing this because we love it and we love talking to people that are making a difference. So if you could give us that review, also share it, please share it. Help spread this message, help spread the podcast so other people will see it. But thank you for tuning in. Thank you for joining us and always remember you matter. And that brings us to the end of another episode of you matter Nashville.

We hope today's show has left you feeling as uplifted and inspired as we are. Remember, the spirit of Nashville lives in all of us, and every small act of kindness echoes throughout the community. A huge thank you for listening and even being a part of our You Matter community. If you love this episode, please share with friends and leave us a five -star review. It helps us reach more listeners and spread the love. And if you know anyone that is looking to make a move to Middle Tennessee area, we are real estate professionals known as the Hoover Team, and we would be honored to serve them with excellence.

Until next time, keep making the difference Nashville. You matter more than you