First Lady Honors Mill Creek High School as a Champion for Children

Today First Lady Mary Perdue visited Mill Creek High School to honor students for their volunteer efforts in this year’s 2008 Promorama prom dress drive as part of her Kids First Initiative. The Promorama project collected prom dresses to be donated to teenage girls who are in foster care in Gwinnett and surrounding counties.

“I am pleased to welcome Mill Creek High School as our newest Champion for Children,” said First Lady Mary Perdue. “It is an honor to celebrate the kindness, hard work and creativity of all of the volunteers who have taken the time to give back to the community.”

The Mill Creek High School Scholarship Pageant Organization, led by Miss Junior Mill Creek 2007, Tori Rodriquez, organized the event Promorama. Other Mill Creek organizations contributed to their efforts. More than 125 dresses were collected, at an estimated value of $20,000, from Mill Creek and five other schools in the county. Additionally, approximately 50 accessory items such as hair accessories, jewelry and shoes were collected for teenage girls in foster care. The collections were donated to the Foster Children’s Foundation, an organization that provides needed supplies and clothing to foster children free of charge. This spring, more than 100 teenage girls in foster care will receive the items from the Foundation to ensure a beautiful prom evening.

“Champions for Children are groups within our Georgia community who show superior efforts in volunteerism,” said Mrs. Perdue. “We encourage civic, corporate and faith based groups to engage their membership in volunteer activities for abused and neglected children.”

Kids First and Champions for Children are initiatives of the Our Children Campaign. Mrs. Perdue travels across Georgia hosting monthly activities highlighting an area of volunteerism with abused and neglected children. The ultimate goal of the Our Children Campaign is to spur a new era of collaboration among Georgia's many communities - individuals, corporations, organizations, foundations and faith-based communities, and to increase the level of volunteerism on behalf of Georgia's children around the state.

To find out more information or to learn how you can support the foster children in your community and to view a list of other Champions for Children, visit www.gov.georgia.gov and follow the link to the First Lady's Our Children Campaign or call 1-866-786-6661.