It’s my senior year at Cathedral High School, and we were recently assigned a project by our religion teacher, Ms. Benoit, to create a community service project for her class.

I had tossed around a few ideas and while discussing some of them with my mom, she told me about The Sunshine Shelter.

According to the director of the Sunshine Shelter, Matilda Stephens, the shelter functions as a temporary home for children who have been taken into custody by the Department of Human Services because of alleged abuse or neglect. Children can spend up to 45 days at the shelter and while they are there, every effort is made to keep their lives going in as normal a fashion as possible.

Ms. Stephens conveyed to my mom that one of the biggest problems the shelter has with the incoming children is a lack of clothing, especially for school social activities. She said that many of the teenaged girls who come through don’t get to attend school dances like prom and homecoming because they have nothing to wear.

My mom told me about how Ms. Stephens bought one girl a dress with her own money, so she could attend a school dance because she had never been to one. Seeing the impact that what Ms. Stephens did for this one girl, made me think about all the dresses that my friends and I have in our closets, from dances we’ve been to over the years. We have often borrowed each other’s clothes for different occasions, so this would be a lot like doing that, but for people we don’t know. That’s when I came up with the idea for “Lara’s Closet” for my project.

Lara’s Closet will be a place for girls who come through the shelter to borrow dresses, as well as shoes and accessories, for parties, dances and holiday functions, and then return them for future use. It is my hope that Lara’s Closet will become an ongoing project, and girls who have dresses they no longer need will bring them to the shelter and continue to provide clothes for the displaced teens.

To make this project a reality, I will be having a drive at my home, 4 Bingaman Lane, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 1, and I ask that anyone who would like to donate party dresses, shoes and/or accessories they no longer want or need, to please donate them to this worthy cause.

If there are any businesses that have any surplus inventory that would like to donate these type items to Lara’s Closet, a tax-deductible receipt can be issued to your business for the donation. Bingaman Lane is located near Tracetown Shopping Center.

Lara Biglane is a senior at Cathedral School.