By Amy Byrnes

Cinderella had a fairy godmother conjure her gown and those famous glass slippers for the ball, but the spouses of military personnel stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst had members from the Little Silver Women’s Club swoop in and perform some magic of their own this fall.

The group collected over 700 pieces of formal evening wear, purses, shoes and costume jewelry for a store run by the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (JBMDL) Spouses’ Club which opened in September. Dubbed “Cinderella’s Closet,” the not-for-profit outlet is open to all active duty military and their dependents.

“It was just overwhelming,” said Kathleen Doty, Woman’s Club of Little Silver president. “They were just over-the-top appreciative.” 

Similar to the popular website Rent the Runway, spouses can borrow a dress for $20 and accessories for $5; unlike Rent the Runway, customers who shop at Cinderella’s Closet get their deposit back when the items are cleaned and returned. Doty, who’s been a member of the Women’s Club for over 40 years, said when the doors of the new store opened, a line of shoppers was waiting to get in and start trying on dresses. 

“Women, especially the enlisted ranks, don’t have the expendable income to go buy a new dress every single time they have an event, like a graduation or formal,” said Lucrecia Berridge, president of the JB-MDL Spouses’ Club who helped spearhead the new shop. She explained that military life can mean three or four formals each year that, unlike in civilian life, are not optional. Getting dressed up can be expensive, she added, especially when supporting a family on a military salary. 

Berridge explained that it’s not just spouses and active duty members borrowing dresses; daughters have taken advantage of the new store for homecoming dances and she anticipates many will be looking for prom dresses there as well. “We’ve got people looking for dresses to wear for family pictures and weddings and even fancy dinners,” she said.

Doty had gotten the idea to collect gently worn evening wear and accessories for military spouses after reading about the Monmouth County organization Cinderella’s Closet, which provides prom dresses to underprivileged high school students. After working on a project raising funds for wounded veterans, it occurred to Doty that women of the military would benefit from a similar program.

She contacted JBMDL to see if there was an interest and then set about reaching out to the community for donations over the course of about seven months. Berridge said that initially the spouses’ club anticipated receiving about 50-70 pieces from the dress drive. When the club heard back from Doty a few months after her initial call to say that they’d amassed about 700 items, club members realized they were going to need a bigger boat, so to speak. An existing thrift store would not be able to accommodate all those dresses. 

They struck upon the idea of clearing out an unused clubhouse the spouses’ club had been utilizing for storage space. Over the course of about a month, volunteers from various ranks and branches came together to sweep away the cobwebs and clear out the boxes to transform the space into the new evening wear shop. “It turned from a storage space to a store,” said Berridge, whose husband is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and has been stationed at JBMDL for three years.

Members of the Woman’s Club were recognized in October for their work by the spouses’ club at the Little Silver clubhouse on Church Street where they were given a plaque thanking them for their efforts and referring to them as “fairy godmothers.”

The effort was so successful and well-received that the group is again collecting gently worn gowns and cocktail dresses and the attendant accessories. Donations can be dropped off at 107 Woodbine Ave. in Little Silver or pickups can be arranged by calling 732-320-6652.

“It’s very heartwarming for us to see these ladies come in and find something and feel beautiful and validated, like they matter in this military life,” said Berridge. “It’s just been a joy seeing those smiling faces.”

The Little Silver Woman’s Club is a member of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs, the largest volunteer women’s service organization in the state, and will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. While membership has dwindled from a couple hundred women to about 10, they are busy spearheading different volunteer efforts. Look for them at the Little Silver Train Station in January selling 50-50 raffle tickets to raise money to provide disabled veterans with canine companions to assist with daily tasks and increase their independence.

“Just to help anybody in the military is a pleasure,” Doty said.

This article originally appeared in the Dec. 19, 2019 edition of the The Two River Times.