Charity that donates wedding dresses to military, 1st responders loses dresses in major flood
A charity organization that donates wedding dresses to military brides, first responders and health care workers is rebuilding after losing thousands of wedding dresses in a flood.
Heidi Janson, the founder of Brides Across America, told "Good Morning America" that a flood decimated the organization's warehouse in North Andover, Massachusetts, last week, destroying all of their wedding dresses as well as equipment like hanging racks, hangers, computers and tables.
"We're just getting ready for a big fundraiser ... and we had a lot of things ready to go and laid out, and we lost 80% of our inventory, and everything that was in the warehouse," Janson said, estimating they lost $7 million worth of wedding dresses. "We had beautiful designers like Vera Wang, Carolina Herrera, just beautiful dresses that we wanted to pass on to deserving brides."
The North Andover area saw nearly 8 inches of rain last Tuesday. The heavy rainfall caused a pond to overflow, which led to flooding in many local businesses, according to local ABC station WCVB-TV.
Janson said she and her team are working overtime to try to go through items in the warehouse to see if any dresses are salvageable.
Each year, Brides Across America sends thousands of wedding dresses to local bridal salons across the country. The bridal salons then host events for military brides, first responders and health care workers to pick out dresses, according to Janson.
There are at least two scheduled events in the next several weeks that Janson said they are still trying to make happen, despite the flood.
"The amount of work sifting through everything to see if we can salvage anything, it's not only physically but emotionally draining," Janson said, adding, "We're just right now trying to take stock of who needs what so we can get them dresses."
Janson said the charity is currently focusing on raising money instead of securing donated wedding dresses because they have no place to store them. A GoFundMe has so far raised over $5,000, money that Janson said will go toward trying to relocate and rebuild.
"No one here had flood insurance, so we're trying to maneuver through this disaster," she said. "We're not sure whether we're going to get any aid, but that takes a while and how much is it going to be?"
Janson said her main mission is to be able to get back to giving away dresses to people who normally serve others first. Since she started the charity in 2008, Brides Across America has donated 28,000 wedding dresses.
"When you see the brides and the couples, that's the most rewarding part, and that's what has kept me going with this charity for so long -- the gratitude," Janson said. "It's a big transformation because how many times do working women get really dressed up? Not too many, especially if you're in fatigues or scrubs all the time."
She added, "And when they put their dresses on, their faces light up."
