To wear or NOT wear a dress.

It’s a choice I have every day of my life. That’s just one of a million choices I get to make each day, and probably one of your millions of choices, too. But have you ever thought about that? The choice thing, I mean, and what would it be like if we were stripped of our ability to make choices.

 

I don’t get heavy here on the FitRV often, but today there’ll be no jokes and no quips. I want to tell you about a very special campaign I’m choosing to participate in. It is called:

 

Dressember.

 

I’ll be wearing a dress every day of December to spread awareness in the fight to end human trafficking. Okay so if you’re just hearing of Dressember you’re probably like me and wondering… what does wearing a dress have to do with human trafficking? Well, nothing, actually. We’re just USING the dress to start a dialogue about an absolutely horrific issue. The dress represents a stance and a commitment I’m taking to do my part spreading awareness.

Now before you stop reading because you THINK human trafficking is something that happens “elsewhere,” nothing could be further from the truth. It is happening all around us.  You’ve likely brushed against it and didn’t even know… perhaps the last gas station you filled at, or the last rest stop you had lunch at on your road trip… or maybe even right in your own neighborhood or RV park.

Currently 40 million people are trafficked worldwide through both sexual and labor trafficking.

  • 81% of them are trapped in forced labor.
  • 25% of them are children.
  • 75% are women and girls.

 

But even more disturbing, at least for me, are the statistics involving children.

  • In 2017, an estimated 1 out of 7 endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children fell victim to sex trafficking.
  • Every state in the US has reports of child trafficking, with an average age of 15 but it goes much younger than that.
  • The U.S. Department of Labor has identified 148 goods from 75 countries made by forced child labor.

 

These victims don’t have the choices we have to speak out, get out, or even to wear a damn dress. THAT’S what Dressember is about. Lifting our voices and joining the fight to end it.

I’ll be collecting donations all month which will get shared through Dressember’s partners such as International Justice Missions and A21 to go directly to field rescue operations. I’m on a fundraising team organized by Aventura Clothing; we’re brand ambassadors of theirs and have always been so proud of their charitable focus, this just another example. My own personal goal is to raise $1500 for my team. Please help me in supporting this cause!

 

TO DONATE, PLEASE GO TO MY DRESSEMBER PAGE HERE! 

 

Also! Come like our FitRV Instagram and Facebook. I’ll be putting up my dress pictures each day there. Honestly I’m a little nervous how this will go. We have a bunch of events, and dresses every day are going to be a challenge, especially when I usually dress for multiple bouts of exercise throughout the day. Still, it’s a choice I’ve made and I’m sticking to it.

Here’s an extra incentive: YOUR DONATION GETS YOU ENTERED IN A DRAWING FOR FREE DRESSES FROM AVENTURA!!! 3 Aventura dresses will be given to 3 different donors who will be randomly drawn at the end of our December campaign. In the picture above I’m wearing their “Lia” dress in “eclipse”. I love it and highly recommend for you sporty types. It feels like a super soft sweatshirt; you can bet you’ll be seeing it lots in my December photos.

To donate or NOT to donate. Another of your choices. Whatever you decide, cherish that freedom. It is yours, and only yours, to make.

xoxo, Stef