“It’s bigger than a dress” is the slogan for the movement of Dressember. Not many people have heard of this new movement. The name of this annual event is essentially self-explanatory. Participants must commit themselves to wearing a dress every day throughout December, and much like No-Shave November, Dressember was designed in order to raise awareness of a worldwide epidemic in society.

The dress is often seen as the essence of femininity, which goes along perfectly with the basis of this foundation. The Dressember foundation and the International Justice Mission have teamed up in order to both raise awareness and fight for women who are victims of exploitation and human trafficking.

Not only does this foundation set out to rescue these woman from exploitation, but it also provides aftercare for the victims to help them adjust back to a normal life. A lot of the victims are also young girls who are around the age of high schoolers, which makes this cause very personal.

Although this campaign is fairly new, being officially created in 2013, the organization recruited 1,233 participants and raised $165,000 within its first year according to their website. As of 2014 the campaign was able to raise $450,000 and are quickly approaching their goal of raising $500,00 in donations. The foundation has decided to extended its campaign until January 31, 2015 in order to reach this goal.

Amongst the many participants of this movement are a couple of SJHHS students. Morgan Mckeague (12) and Alexis Brown (12) who were able to participate in Dressember 2014.

Mckeague said, “I decided pretty last minute actually to do Dressember, and the reason why I did it was because why not? Why not try and stand up for a cause, or I could look back or it and see I did nothing in December. I feel like I accomplished something.” Throughout her experience of Dressember she was indeed able to accomplish a lot as she raised $1,600 for the cause.

Of course fighting for a cause does not come without sacrifice, and wearing a dress every day for every event can become quite challenging sometimes. When asked what the most difficult part was Brown said, “It was cold! This was the coldest winter we’ve ever had! It was just tough having to get in a dress everyday and having it be cold every day.”

Mckeague also expressed her struggles and said, “It did take a little bit of energy to wear a dress everyday, but I am still really glad I did it. And now looking back on it I don’t remember December being like ‘Oh I can’t do this because I’m wearing a dress.’ I remember ‘I did this because I wore a dress.’”

Thanks to girls like these the foundation is able to keep pushing for an end to these violations against women all over the world.