Emmalyn Reid

Maybe she’s your co-worker that you know has a ton going on at home. Maybe she’s your mother or your sister, who you watch work hard on the front lines all day. Maybe she’s a friend who’s been home trying to raise her children, work from home, and be a school teacher to them all at once (and still manage to get food cooked and on the table!). Whoever she is, that woman in your life that you just keep thinking, ‘She needs a break!’: here’s your chance to give her one in the form of a gift card to Fashion Fun Pop.

Founder Ariel Koonce Fortes says the program, “Nominate Her”, started by chance when an old friend offered a donation to her small fashion boutique of $100 to keep things going after they were forced to close their doors due to COVID-19. “A friend reached out and was like, ‘Ariel, I know it’s not a lot, but I’d like to somehow donate $100 your way towards the business,” Ariel explained. While she was grateful for the donation to keep her boutique running, the pair immediately knew there was something larger they could do with this donation. “I started thinking, you know what, let’s throw it out to the community and have everyone say, I would like to nominate this person for a gift card. We find so many women in (our store) who just boost each other up during the events we have, share their stories and tell about their work, there’s so many connections made – and then COVID-19 hit. So it was a blow to the business, yes, but also to all those women who had been connecting with each other and loving on each other and boosting each other up, that now found themselves not having that space to connect. “

How does it work? The “Nominate Her” program is a no questions asked contest where you simply email a name and story to fashionfunpop@gmail.com . From there names will be put into a basket, and every Saturday evening Ariel and her young children will shuffle them and select a name. “You don’t have to share their personal information, just let us know who you’d like to nominate. The point is, we’d like to put smiles on these women’s faces.”

Outside of nominating a woman for a donation, you can also give a gift card to sponsor the next batch of giveaways, you can do that as well. Ariel’s own children have even stepped up in an adorable way to sponsor the next giveaway with their birthday money, a choice that she says makes her proud as a parent. “They heard what Mommy and Daddy were doing, and know they get to save half and spend half of their birthday money. My son came to me and said, ‘Me and Bella, we talked, and we want to give a $20 gift certificate’.”

Who are donations like these going to? Ariel described one entry she received that she says has been stuck on her mind every week. “A mom nominated daughter, who is a nurse on a COVID 19 unit and also she has 3 kids at home. She also has a part time job where she works at a nursing home,” Ariel explained. “She must go to work every day in anxiety, you know, ‘I don’t want to bring this home, I have to be super careful’, all the thoughts going through her head…then it’s the mental aspect of seeing these patients: Do they make it, do they not?” Stories like these have lead Ariel to, despite not even having met most of the nominees in person due to the pandemic, continue have personal relationships with her clients the same way she would if her doors were open. “I found myself praying for this woman, please let her win. She didn’t get nominated that week, but we keep the names for the random drawing every week and now that I know her name, I’m praying for her.”

To learn more about Fashion Fun Pop or shop online, visit their website at fashionfunpop.com and check out the full video below!