JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — An 89-year-old Jacksonville woman is working to give every PACE Center for Girls student in Arlington their dream shopping experience.
It was more than 20 years ago when “Mrs. Mary’s Boutique” all came about.
“So, we came up, we were shown into a classroom, given six black trash bags of clothes and told to spread them out on the desks and tables as neatly as possible and as close to size as possible,” said Mary Warren. “I said to my friends, this is not acceptable. We’re going home. We’re gonna call everybody we know that has teenagers. Have your kids go through their closets and bring us the things that. And so like Topsy, we grew. And we started getting lots and lots of donations.”
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Since then, those six trash bags have turned into loads of volunteers and donations.
PACE students now earn points in school and “spend” them in the boutique while getting a free shopping experience.
“My favorite thing to do is to go around and help everyone else in the boutique and try and find things for them that might look good or they might feel beautiful in,” said Sam, a current student and volunteer. “They deserve to feel like that.”
“Some of our girls are in foster care and as you can imagine, they’re uprooted in the middle of the night and then they have had to leave their personal items behind so they can come in here and shop with their counselor. So, although it is an incentive, it’s also just something for girls who have those necessities, ” said Chantelle Miles, Executive Director of Pace Center for Girls Jacksonville.
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