By Caroline Benjamin

Photo credit: Caroline Benjamin.

Jackson-Feild Behavioral Health Services is a non-profit organization based in Jarratt, Virginia has been providing recovery treatment services and residential care to kids and teenagers since 1855, helping those who have experienced emotional trauma, mental illness, and/or addiction. According to their website, Jackson-Feild strives to “restore wellness and provide support for successful reintegration into homes, families, and communities.” Jackson-Feild supports its residents through many different forms of therapy, such as STEPPS, family therapy, and even neurotherapy. Additionally, Jackson-Feild is the only adolescent psychiatric residential treatment facility in Virginia that utilizes neurotherapy’s non-invasive technology to improve brain function in patients. 

Collegiate students—including myself—are involved with Jackson-Feild Home through the Fairy Godmother Club. Fairy Godmother is a service-based club that organizes a Prom Shop event to provide dresses, shoes, and accessories to the girls that attend Jackson-Feild for their upcoming prom dance. 

Throughout the school year, Fairy Godmother accepts donations of these items from the Collegiate community through colorful donation boxes set up in the Sharp Café. Students and faculty may bring gently used clothing to place in these boxes, and the club members collect and sort the donations in advance of the Prom Shop day. One of the club’s presidents, Sarah Bowman (‘26), stated that while all donations are encouraged, “sometimes—well most of the time—our donations are unusable” due to poor sizing and dress code obstacles. Bowman said that the most important thing that the club can do to ensure that the girls at Jackson-Feild feel confident is “to make sure we have a dress for everyone.” 

While I was unable to attend the annual shopping trip this year, from previous experience I can say that finding formal wear that is affordable and appealing to 20 different girls is no easy feat. Last year, I went to Short Pump Mall with Fairy Godmother to attempt to source dresses and shoes for the event, and it was nearly impossible. The strict limitations of our budget caused certain stores to be completely out of bounds and only allowed for shopping the limited options on clearance racks. Bowman said that “we get a donation each year—aside from Darr Davis—for dresses, shoes, accessories, etc.,” but “one of the challenges there was finding prom dresses that were not insanely expensive.” This year, the leaders of Fairy Godmother—Coco Wayne (‘26), Sarah Turnbull (‘25), and Bowman—solved for this issue by utilizing the thrift store Goodwill. By shopping at Goodwill, the club members were able to find a variety of dresses in a larger range of sizes, while still abiding by Fairy Godmother’s allotted budget. 

All of this preparation culminates on a Saturday each March, when the members of Fairy Godmother make the hour-and-a-half drive to Jackson-Feild Home in Jarratt. Upon arriving on Jackson-Feild’s campus this year on March 29, their faculty members greeted us and led us into the gym, where we set up. The veteran members of the club have the set-up process down to a science. I was put on “shoe-duty” with Madelyn Morgan (‘26), and we got started on unboxing dozens of pairs of shoes and displaying them. We organized the massive piles of footwear by size, style, and color. Simultaneously, other members were wheeling out clothing racks and pulling out piles of dresses to hang up. The prep time flew by, as everyone nervously anticipated meeting the girls from Jackson-Feild and helping them find the perfect dress. 

Soon enough, about eight teens and a few faculty members walked in the gym, and everyone jumped into personal-shopper mode. Each resident was greeted by a member of the club who would pull dresses from the racks, set up fitting rooms, or grab different options for shoes. I watched from my place behind the table of high heels and sparkly flats as pairs of girls from Collegiate and Jackson-Feild mingled and chatted. Bowman said, “I think the biggest thing is striking up conversation and making a connection with the other kids.” She discussed the importance of striking a balance between friendliness and helpfulness when assisting the girls. We strive to “act like we’re shopping with a friend to find a prom dress, and if there’s an issue that we run into—if something is too low cut, or maybe something doesn’t fit very well—we can direct them to a faculty sponsor at Jackson Feild that can help.” 

Bowman and I share the same sentiment that “my favorite part, honestly, was when people come out of the dressing rooms and they have their perfect dress, and everyone stops what they’re doing and starts cheering: it’s really fun.” My highlight of our trip to Jackson-Feild in March was seeing the shift in the girls’ confidence once they put on an outfit they love. One resident specifically stands out when thinking about this shift: she was a sophomore and so excited to participate in the Prom Shop for the first time. She had been going back-and-forth between three dresses, and upon trying one of them on for the second time, she said “I have no idea what to pick, I look good in everything!” It was the moments of shared laughter between the girls at Collegiate and the residents that bridged the gap between us and made the months of preparation for the event worth it.