Prom dress charity becomes legacy of South Florida teen

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. -- Before she died in a car accident last year, 16-year-old Rebecca Kirtman collected about 250 prom dresses and gave them to needy girls across South Florida.

Now her closet of dresses is open to girls around the world.

Inspired by her kindness and determined to keep her dream alive, Rebecca's parents, friends and family have collected more than 3,000 gowns and opened a boutique in Pompano Beach. More than two dozen chapters of Becca's Closet are opening in nine states, and another is starting in Singapore.

"She would have loved to see this," said Rebecca's friend, 17-year-old Alexandra Venezia, as she helped girls pick out dresses at the boutique.

Rebecca died Aug. 20 when she was driving home from orientation at Nova High School. On a rain-slicked road, she collided with a sport utility vehicle, lost control of the Ford Mustang she was driving and skidded under a tractor-trailer.

She was pronounced dead at Broward Medical Center, days before she would have started her junior year.

Almost immediately, her father decided to continue Rebecca's charity work.

"Things just changed quick," said Jay Kirtman, his eyes welling with tears. "It was just very clear to me that I needed to do something to show how good Becca was."

Kirtman, along with grieving family and friends, turned the dress bank that Rebecca ran out of her home into a federally certified charity with a board of directors, a student board, a scholarship fund and a Web site.

The teen magazine YM featured the link in its March edition and soon readers were starting local chapters around the nation from New York to California. The group is getting one to two requests to start local chapters every day.

"It just seemed overwhelming," said Phil Goldstein, a board member whose daughter, Jenna, was friends with Rebecca. "I thought someday we would be a big organization, but I didn't realize it would happen so soon."

Donations of dresses -- sizes 0 to 42 -- have come from across the country, including five from the set of the TV soap opera "The Young and the Restless" and an anonymous shipment of $10,000 worth of gowns from Mississippi.

April 10, Rebecca's 17th birthday, the group moved from a donated storage facility into the boutique at Festival Marketplace, a flea market in Pompano Beach.

That's where girls such as Phaedra Fleming come by appointment to look through racks of dresses to find the perfect gown.

Fleming is a senior at Cross Creek School in Pompano Beach. She was in foster care until October when she turned 18, and now she lives on a stipend from the state. It isn't enough for luxuries like prom dresses.

"At that point, I was like, I'm not going," Fleming said.

She contacted Gary Levine, her former case worker from foster care, and he directed her to Becca's Closet. There she found an elegant Donna Gray embroidered silver dress with a matching shawl.

"Realistically, without this, there's no prom dress," Levine said.

Later that morning, 18-year-old Dionne Thompson left the boutique with a sparkly, floor-length, midnight blue gown. Thompson lives with her sister and now plans to attend prom with friends at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach.

"I never thought I was going to go to my senior prom," Thompson said. "But now that I have a dress, I can."

Girls who need a dress contact the organization through the Web site to make an appointment at the boutique. They must show a valid student ID, but no proof of need.

"We're doing it the way Rebecca did it -- the honor system," said her mother, Pam Kirtman.

She said sharing the joys and memories of prom with more people was a fitting tribute to her daughter.

"Rebecca loved to party, she loved music, she loved to be with her friends," her mother said.

Rebecca started her dress bank last year after reading a magazine article about wealthy girls at a boarding school who donated their old dresses to a less affluent high school.

She decided to start a dress bank at Nova High, hanging posters at school seeking used dresses and writing dress companies for donations. Delray Beach-based Alfred Angelo Bridal Company Stores donated 200 dresses and Rebecca expanded her dress bank to all of South Florida.

That year she distributed dresses to girls from Homestead to Palm Beach.

"This was a legacy that she left and, I think, a godsend for her friends and her family," said Jane Silver, whose daughter Alex had been friends with Rebecca since age 5.

Alex Silver recently solicited 48 pairs of new, dyeable shoes from a retail store for the charity.

"It's made it a little easier knowing that she's doing something to help Becca's dream," Silver said.

Venezia explained: "It helps 'cause you can remember Becca. She loved to help other people."

"Like she said, 'Little things can make a big difference,"' Venezia remembered. "Now I see where she was coming from when she actually said it."

Goldstein, too, said the work has helped him and his daughter. He expects Rebecca's legacy to keep growing, with Becca's Closet eventually becoming a student-run organization like she began.

"I think," he said, "Rebecca will be remembered forever."

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On the Net:

Becca's Closet: http://www.beccascloset.org

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