The Bucks County Courier Times of Pennsylvania recently published a story about the Landmark Self Expression and Leadership Program of Vicki LaRosa, whichy raised money for the Dress for Success Organization.
Helping women dress for success
by Kate Fratti
The hardest part of the work day, in my estimation, is getting dressed.
What to wear? What to wear?
And the thing is I’m under no pressure to be fashionable at work. The newsroom dress code is fairly liberal. The rule of thumb is that a print journalist ought to be dressed to cover either a fire or funeral. Mostly, I think editors are just relieved when some of us don’t wear our underwear on our heads or sport two different colored shoes.
Which reminds me that a guy in the office recently sidled up to my desk to show me that he had, in fact, gotten dressed too quickly and pulled on two different loafers. He thought it was hilarious, not job threatening.
Rumpled, even mismatched, is OK most days if you’re a columnist.
However, it is most definitely not OK if you are seeking to climb a corporate ladder.
Vicki LaRosa, at the ripe old age of 27, knows it all too well. Clothes matter.
A graduate of Penn State, she frequently travels on business. She consults with large companies about their operations. Most recently, she’s been consulting with American Greetings in Ohio.
Being taken seriously means looking sharp. And sharp can cost a bundle.
Vicki said she’s been blessed in her life. But it often has struck her how difficult it must be for women trying to transition into professional jobs out of poverty or bad marriages or any other situation that leaves them counting pennies.
Job hunting is a tough enough challenge. How do those women also fold in the challenge of dressing the part?
Enter a longstanding non-profit group called Dress For Success.
It’s the one Vicki chose when she was looking for a community outreach project. She’s enrolled in something called the Landmark Education Self Expression and Leadership Program. It teaches that part of leading is identifying challenges, then finding ways to transform them into opportunities for positive change
Vicki’s Bought into the notion
Dress for Success Philadelphia (www.dressforsuccess.org/philadelphia/), which serves women living in the Delaware Valley, is based at 1043 Spring Garden St. in Philadelphia. There are 90 affiliates all over the world, according to its Web site. With retail and corporate sponsors, Dress For Success is a volunteer-driven program that provides low-income women with free professional outfits for work – suits, separates, shoes and other accessories.
It’s not just about fashion. It’s about providing some very basic keys to a woman’s independence and self-sufficiency. Call 215-232-7292 for information.
Vicki is inviting you to keep the evening of May 1 open, from 7:30 to 11:30, so you can help the mission. That’s when she’ll host a Dress For Success benefit at Main Street Catering in Tullytown.
A $30 ticket will buy you dinner, beer and music by the band Johnny Pompadour. There will be raffles, a 50/50 and a silent auction. One of the big items will be tickets for the Phillies versus the Mets on July 5. Think fireworks.
If you can’t make it to the benefit in Tullytown, Vicki invites you to drop off new and gently used contemporary women’s business clothing to the Beer-A-Rama at 200 Levittown Parkway in Tullytown. The store is owned by her dad, Frank LaRosa.
If you could wear it to a professional job interview, Vicki is happy to have it for Dress for Success. Drop-off days at Beer-A-Rama are April 20 to April 30 during business hours, Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
I’m telling you about the benefit this early because Vicki hopes other business owners will come forward to donate raffle items. If you cater to women, what better way to get the word out about your place? You can reach Vicki at 267-994-0031.
Here’s to hoping that helping will always be fashionable.
Seattle Street musician Ed McMichael was a fixture outside Seattle sports stadiums and events, entertaining onlookers by playing the tuba and wearing a ridiculous hat. When McMichael was robbed and murdered by three juveniles last fall, Doug Creson thought that he deserved some kind of tribute. He made his project in Landmark Education’s Self-Expression and Leadership Program a “kazoo salute” at the Seattle Mariners home opener this year which involved hundreds of participant.
In her Landmark Self-Expression and Leadership Program earlier this year, New Yorker Sue Sena put on a volunteer expo event through SWiSH – a gay rights group that she had founded – the acronym stands for Straight Women in Support of Homos.
Dr. Montgomery Douglas took on an ambitious project in his Self-Expression and Leadership Program: the rebuilding of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Church in the Domincan Republic which was destroyed by an earthquake in 2004. By partnering with the Knight of Columbus, Douglas’ first fundraiser brought in $7,500 towards the rebuilding. This was covered in a story in Dominica News.