YOU SHOP AND LIVES CHANGE >>>

Every once in a while you can hear faint coughing as you open up your closet doors.  It's a sound of desperation, faded memories and hopeful glee that one day she will be rescued. She will once again live to be paraded and enjoyed.

In the very back of your closet, behind your politically incorrect leather skirt and 2001 striped Gap turtleneck sweater, lives a fancy dress barely clinging to life underneath a tattered plastic Nordstrom hanging bag.

Rescue the dress. Let it be free. Stop holding onto the memories of that one time you wore that dress when you were dating that egotistical loser who only invited you to that one event so you could make his ex-girlfriend jealous. He doesn't like you.  He's never coming back. The dress, however, deserves better.

And don't go thinking you'll wear it again to your next big event, because even if you were still that size, you'd want an excuse to go shopping for a new dress anyway.

Give life to a dress that you no longer need. Stop being selfish and let the dress go.  Give it to someone who needs it, like someone at the YWCA who will sell the dress and use the money to eliminate racism and empower women at their annual Glam that Gives benefit Sunday, June 26 at the Hotel Murano.

Go right now. The deadline to donate is Monday, June 20. Take the dress out of your closet and do the right thing. The YWCA awaits your delivery.

Drop off your gorgeous garments, purses and shoes during to the YWCA located at 405 Broadway in Tacoma. Business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Weekly Volcano photographer Steve Dunkelberger snapped a few of the dresses set to auction off at the YWCA's upcoming Glam that Gives benefit. The annual event raises moneys to assist more than 12,000 women and children in crisis due to domestic violence.

Thanks to donations from around the 253, the YWCA has some 300 dresses, 200 pairs of shoes and 100 purses just in time for Zoobilee dress shopping.

Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland, Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson, Emergency Food Network Director Helen McGovern, Rushforth Wheels partner Melanie Manista-Rushforth and others will wear donated dresses, many with shop tags attached.

"They will be priced to sell," says Kelly McDonald, director of Marketing and Donor Relations at YWCA Pierce County. "Nothing will be out of reach."

Some dresses will go for as little as $25 while others might go for closer to $200. A silent auction will add to the tally as a way to reach the $10,000 goal for this first-time effort.

A fashion show of selected items will also be held.

Tickets are on sale here.

Glam That Gives

Sunday, June 26, 11 a.m., $35
Hotel Murano, 1320 Broadway, Tacoma