Meet Dawn Schultz | Founder and President, The Dresses and Dreams Project

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dawn Schultz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dawn, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I wanted to help girls with hardships and difficult circumstances attend their formal events. But more than that, I wanted to provide a way for these girls to be able to overcome their obstacles to live out their God-given purpose and learn to value who they are.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I was a makeup artist in the Los Angeles area for 25 years before moving to Riverside County with a disability that ended my fulltime career in the beauty industry. I am a survivor of violent crimes and know that our stories can be the pages in someone else’s survival guide. my life presented many difficult circumstances of which I stood on one side and the other side were my big hopes and dreams. There was a gap with no direction or guidance, and I never seemed to be able to get to the other side. I am an overcomer of addiction and a survivor of trauma and I give all the glory to God that I am alive today and able to assist young women with the challenges I had, growing up, and in the areas I was broken and felt stuck. I learned that we really have to know what it really is to value ourselves. We hear “love yourself’ and “self care”, yada yada all the time. But what does it mean to VALUE ourselves? Many of us, as a result of not valuing ourselves end up in bad relationships, abuse, addictions, and other sets of circumstances as a result. But there’s more to this. The healing journey isn’t overnight and mindsets have to be overhauled. Healing isn’t pretty, but its worth it to find our freedom. We have to be sold out and be ready to do anything for this healing, so we can live our life’s purpose out. Most of the time our giftedness comes out of the same areas we are wounded or have been attacked. The Dresses and Dreams Project was birthed because I knew of a need, but I also realized that at the end of the day, the pretty gown and makeup are secondary. Helping guide a young woman to the other side of whatever stops her from her dreams and into her freedom is really what takes precedence, and with God ALL, and I mean ALL things are possible. I’ve seen the miracles and I’ve experienced them myself . It is not easy keeping a small and mighty nonprofit with 1,200 formal gowns afloat year-round. Our biggest challenge has been funding and since our org is 100% volunteer-operated, including myself, getting our story out to the public is a definite area of opportunity. All of our programs are free and we all have an opportunity to change lives, no matter our back story or even our current difficulties.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’d have to think about this for a few minutes, but my favorite coffee shop is a place called City Coffee Local in Wildomar. Its got a great vibe and its where I usually invite people to if I want to get to know them or if we are having a meeting.

I would recommend some of the shops in Old Town Murrieta and Temecula and a farmers market (night market) they hold in Downtown Murrieta every other Thursday. They have live music, food, arts, crafts, wares, horse drawn carriage rides. It is just a great vibe.

I’m a lot of fun but I am a closet introvert so I’d really have to think about my favorite things to do. I’ll get back to you with a list!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to give a shoutout to Bettyann Yadanza who inspired me to help other women live their dreams. She was the woman who helped my daughter get to her prom when as a single mother, I could not afford to do so. She has been a beacon of light and support in my life and has helped me navigate some very difficult times in my own life to overcome challenges. Because of her, my mission was to pay it forward and I never dreamed over 2000 girls and women would benefit from the generosity she showed my daughter 12 years ago.

Website: www.thedressesanddreamsproject.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dressesanddreamsproject/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dressesanddreamsproject316

Other: We aren’t really on fb too much due to problems arising due to issues these entities have had with censorship of truth.

Image Credits
Candice Gordon Photography