9:50 a.m., Feb. 22, 2010----When disaster struck Haiti on Jan. 12, Kimberly Cignarella, a senior apparel design major in the University of Delaware's Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, decided she wanted to contribute to the relief efforts by sewing dresses for girls who lost their belongings as a result of the earthquake.

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Cignarella said she thought of designing dresses because she wanted to take advantage of the strong and unique ability that she had, while helping others in need. She is calling her contribution AdDRESSed With Love.

“While I was home over winter break, I kept seeing TV commercials asking for people to text and donate money,” she said. “But I wanted to be more involved and do something more personal and from the heart.”

The dresses, which are designed for newborn to 6-year-old girls, are created in an assembly-line fashion of approximately 50 at a time and each takes about three hours to complete, Cignarella said. She designed two different styles of dresses and each dress features a heart on the back of the neck with her initials stitched into it, to show her love and effort.

When she started the project, the goal she set for herself was to make 200 dresses. She has completed more than 130 so far and has no plans on stopping, as long as she takes care of her schoolwork.

Cignarella has been able to donate 100 of her dresses to a church organization that will ship them to Haiti. She said she is still looking for additional avenues to get more of her dresses to Haiti.

Cignarella, who plans to become a designer after college, said she wants to use AdDRESSED With Love to help inspire other young adults to help others, whether they are in their own backyard or thousands of miles away.

“It's just a great feeling,” she said. “I'm always happy with what I'm doing.”

Article by Jon Bleiweis