Desirea Sierra was an “All-American girl,” her mom said.
Only 11, Desirea, known as “Dez” was a cheerleader, played softball, participated in a few pageants and even played the clarinet. On March 8, 2000, Dez attended her first concert with her best friend Ciara Lewis and both their moms, singing along and screaming with thousands of others at the Britney Spears concert at the Pensacola Civic Center, now the Pensacola Bay Center. The moms had even rented a limo for the evening.
It would be the only concert young Desirea would ever attend. Just 51 days later, Dez was killed by her own father in a murder-suicide domestic violence tragedy.
“It was one of the most memorable nights I can remember with Desirea,” said her mother, Taxie Lambert, of the Spears’ concert. “I’ll treasure it forever. As a single mom (the couple was separated and in the process of divorcing) to treat her to a concert and a limo ride was everything to me.”
For years, Lambert suffered through agonizing thoughts and visions of what was lost, and what would never be. Dez was finishing sixth grade at Bellview Middle School when she was killed.
“I would never see her in a prom dress,” she said. “I would never see her in a wedding dress.”
Yet in recent years, she’s found something to soothe the agony she felt and honor her beloved Dez at the same time. Lambert remarried in 2006 and daughter Katelyn Lambert was born in 2011.
Taxie Lambert now oversees 4EVR Dez, a nonprofit foundation that supplies beautiful prom and homecoming dresses to area high school students, as well as to middle school girls in need of a formal dress for a school ceremony or events. The dresses are theirs to keep, sell or donate back to the program so they can be used again.
“This is our third year and we’re going strong,” Lambert said. “We’ve dressed over 900 kids in free formal wear.”
The dress project is called Project Formal and is one of two 4EVR Dez projects. The other is Project Period, where the foundation provides free feminine emergency supply packs inside area middle and high school for girls who might need them.
But by far, Project Formal is the group’s most popular and successful venture. Project Formal holds trunk shows for area students to look at, try on and choose a free dress from the many donated dresses, which come from the public and area formalwear shops and other businesses. The group also, when funding is available, will rent tuxedos for boys needing a formal look.
The group’s trunk sales take place preceding homecoming and prom schedules, with many who attended proms this year wearing dresses from 4EVR Dez and Project Formal.
Both of Tangera Richardson’s daughters attended the Dixon School for Arts & Sciences middle school prom on May 16, both wearing dresses picked from a recent trunk show.
Daughter Chrissie, 13, wore a red “babydoll” dress, while daughter Cassandra, who turns 13 on May 23, wore a pink dress in the same style.
“They at least tried on 12 apiece,” Richardson said of her daughters’ dress spree. “They both love their dress,” adding that pictures of the girls posing in the dresses has been popular in the family group chats.
Richardson, a working single mother, said that dresses are expensive and she was fretting over what to do to make sure her girls looked nice for the big event.
“I thought we might have to dip into our savings to get a dress,” she said. “I’m just so grateful for this.”
Not having to spend a small fortune on dresses for her girls meant there was more money for other beauty features, such as new shoes and having their hair done.
“It’s all to help the child,” Richardson said. “When the child feels good, the parents feel good too.”
Lambert said she wants all students to feel special and not feel singled out at a fancy shindig feeling they don’t measure up to everyone else, sartorially speaking. She remembers trying to find a dress for Katelyn when she was 11 to wear at a voice recital.
“I was shocked at the price of dresses she said and thought of how many students might not get to go to formal events because of the price,” she said, adding that as a religious person she then felt “a sense of purpose” and found a way to help young girls. She knows the program works.
“I want them to be in something they can feel proud of,” Lambert said. “You don’t want to feel ashamed or not even go to an event because you don’t have the right clothing. We want to empower them and make them feel good about themselves.”
A few years back, a girl from an “under resourced home,” came to a trunk show and tried on a dress that was perfect for her.
“She looked at herself and dropped to her knees and said, ‘I am beautiful’,” Lambert recalled. “It was such a wonderful moment. I know Desirea is with me and moving this project forward.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: 25 years after her daughter was killed, mom is using her loss to lift up other girls
Reporting by Troy Moon, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
