For possibly the final time, Operation Glass Slipper inspires confidence in girls

The organizers of Operation Glass Slipper have one goal: make every girl feel like a queen every day.

In what is now its final year under its current leadership, Operation Glass Slipper hopes to make prom a reality for area girls once again. 

For 13 years, Pam Phillip and all the Operation Glass Slipper volunteers have made thousands of girls feel just like that.

Sunday morning, girls gathered to feel beaming, beautiful and confident.

“They walk out of here taller and happy and it’s just a wonderful feeling,” said Phillip.

Phillip and her volunteers want all the girls who came to their event Sunday to feel like Cinderella at their prom.

“Prom is such a rite of passage and to miss it is like being outside looking in and you can’t go in,” Phillip said.

Through the Operation Glass Slipper program, the girls can go in with all the confidence in the world.

With a little help from their fairy godmothers and support from their real moms, all the girls walk out with a dress, shoes, a purse, jewelry and a glowing smile.

“It makes me smile,” said Lauren Ward, one of the fairy godmother volunteers. “Makes me kind of cry sometimes.”

“I think all the moms are really hyped because they see their baby in these beautiful dresses getting ready for their big day,” said Sandra Howard, a mother.

The clothing and accessory options are empowering for many of the girls.

“Just loving who I am. Just loving myself in this dress,” said Janell Howard.

“Coming here and seeing all these opportunities that are like, oh, I can probably see myself in that. Or, I could see myself in that, and you get to try them on and feel good about yourself,” said Lanijah Worthfield-Right, a high school senior. “That is 1,000 boosts of self-esteem. Like, oh! I look so good in this dress.”

It’s a feeling that Phillips believes girls should feel every day.

Currently, Phillip is in negotiations with different groups to keep Operation Glass Slipper going, because Phillip says this is her last year organizing the event.

Whatever is left from Sunday’s event goes on sale for reasonable prices March 22-24. March 29-31, Phillips will hold a sale of the remaining accessories and dresses at Signal Hills in West St. Paul.