A special charity evening “Let the dress live” took place in the Alytus City Theater

A charity evening “Let the dress live” took place in the great gallery of the Alytus City Theater. This initiative is a variant of the “Donate a dress” event, which Escadara Maštavičienė, originally from Ethiopia, started organizing in Lithuania ten years ago. The main idea is to provide an opportunity for some women to share dresses with others who are going through a difficult period of their lives, to donate their time, services, and share kindness. The original idea grew into a meaningful charity event, organized by “Angelo Sparnai” Public Enterprise.

According to Odeta Petraitienė, the head of the organization, the event is attended by women visiting the Alytus Women’s Crisis Center, the Alytus Social Services Center, the Alytus Branch of the Lithuanian Samaritan Community, the Lazdijai Social Services Center, and Ukrainian women living in Alytus. A gift for them is a trip to the National Opera and Ballet Theatre. The patron of the event, designer Violeta Sūdžiuvienė, helped the women dress up by individually choosing dresses, shoes, and jewelry, while a team of beauty service representatives highlighted and revealed the woman’s most beautiful features free of charge. In the evening, it was possible to see the presentation of V. Sūdžiuviene’s collection “Sunny peace”.

There was also an auction. The first item offered was a box of apples, it was bought for 110 euros by the team of VšĮ “Angelos sparnai” and distributed an apple to everyone present, thus expressing the idea that the most important thing is what you donate for, not what you get. The funds collected during the auction (1 thousand 500 euros) are intended for the publication of the book “Seen” by the director and actress Andras Kavaliauskaitė. The purpose of the book is to help teenagers survive bullying and to teach them not to be afraid to speak up and seek help. A. Kavaliauskaitė is a laureate of the Golden Cross of the Stage, her one-man show of the same name about the body cult, eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia), psychological violence and self-loathing reached a considerable number of Lithuanian teenagers. The director was repeatedly asked: where could one read the story seen on stage? So far – nowhere. But over the course of five years, the notes of authentic stories filled up and the idea of ​​creating a book was born. Andra says that her desire to write was strengthened by a special experience – a girl who came to her after the performance said that she recognized herself in the story, “Seen” saved her life.

At the end of the charity evening, statuettes-dresses (a creation of ceramist Ilona Junevičienė) with wings were distributed to people who made a special contribution to the flight of good, and many responded, including from the Lithuanian community from the United Kingdom, who have a good heart and a need to contribute to meaningful activities.

The charity evening “Let the dress live” took place due to the common goal of the gathering of a large number of good-hearted people, each of whom contributed a piece of the cake, which became a single piece. The biggest thanks go to Alytus tea house, Aušrina Bura, Gintar Rimkuta-Merčaitiene (“Crystal house”), Jolita Saulevichiene (“Bingo’s most beautiful holiday”), Jūrate Stučinskiene (“Florus”), Inga Burzevichiene (“Sudvina”), photographer Inga Balsiuk , Marijas Jakinevičiis (“Miella”), Pauliis Melinis (“White Tents”), Rasa Budrevičienė (“RVR studio”), volunteers, volunteers, Solveiga Gutauskiene (“SG studio”), Undina Knezevičienė (UAB “Polilogo”), all in the sense of professional host of the evening Vaidas Praspaliauskas, Žygymantas Makacks (“N-18 mobile cocktail bar”) and many others.

Professor Audronė Žigaitytė-Nekrošienė, the ambassador of the “Let the dress live” charity evening, was happy that there are more and more beautiful charity events and noble ideas are being born. The extremely cozy, kind-hearted evening will continue: 15 women will travel to the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. She wishes that these lucky women will experience unreal experiences, and that “Angel Wings” will continue the work started next year as well, gathering more and more donors and making more and more needy happy.

Odeta, the organizer of the event, shares her future plans – she is planning a meeting with a Lithuanian woman living in London for a joint event in the United Kingdom.

Organizers information