Cindy Small gathers grad and wedding dresses and lets people borrow them for no charge. 

And this isn’t just a couple of dresses, Small says there are so many that her home is flooded with dresses.

“I donated one room to it, now I got my walk-in closet filled, my hallway filled, and the room I donated to I can’t even get into it. Yeah, it’s crazy.” 

Small finds people through social media willing to donate dresses. Then she picks up the dress from the donor and brings it home. Although the dresses are free to borrow, the people borrowing the dresses have to pay to get them cleaned. She estimates to have almost 400 dresses, so she can't afford to clean them all.

Living in Ontario for the majority of her life, she felt lonely coming to a new place. She started the “Pretty as a Princess” dress program to meet new people now that she lives in Blumenort. “We come here and we know nobody. So this is a great opportunity to get to know the community.” She goes on to say that there are a lot of people who have been struggling with finances recently. “It’s all free because there are people who can’t afford it. Especially after COVID and people lost their jobs and everything.” 

Small also has a disability and she can only stand for a couple minutes at a time, so she says this is a good way for her to meet people. “I just wanted to do something to give to the community because I can’t do anything now that I have this disability.” 

Because of the pandemic, she has just started up this year. She has already had about 30 people come to borrow a dress. Small says she gets emotional each time someone finds their dream dress. “It makes me cry, they cry, everybody’s happy. It’s just amazing and it’s all due to the generosity of our community.” 

She talks about a recent donation she received from a lady who owns a dress business. “I had a lady donate me 15 brand new wedding dresses never been worn before and I was just amazed, crying. I was just flabbergasted. So now I’m working at getting them out to the people.” 

Some people have also donated long mirrors. Small says it nice since it helps the girls see how they look in the dresses.

If you want to get in contact with Cindy Small to borrow or donate a dress, you can reach her at 204-326-8157 or smokie2409@icloud.com.