DOER

Comings And Goings

FI LE

MARLATAPP -FR

City: Bloomfield Hills
Kudos: Dress For A Dream

Marla ,Tipper, customer relationship manager of
and Fine jewelry in West
s
Tapper'
Bloomfield, started the Dress for a Dream program to
collect donated cocktail and prom dresses to give to
underprivileged girls so they can attend the prom. ,

How did you
come up with the
idea?
I had heard of it
in when I was liv-
ing in Chicago.
When I moved
here six months
ago, I thought I
could do it. I liter-
ally started it six
weeks ago, and it
just kind of blew
up immediately,
which was awe-
some, but intense.

Tracie Pope and Marla Tapper
of Dress for a Dream

How did you go
about it?
I said I wanted
to do it, I put out an ad and an e-mail, and left
town for the jewelry show for 10 days. Tracie
Pope, who works in advertising and marketing for
Tapper's, took care of everything while I was gone.
When I came back, we had more than 200 emails
and 200 voicemails.

How many dresses have been donated?
We had 300 girls on Thursday looking at more
than 3,500 dresses. We never expected that many.
The Orchard Mall donated space in two vacant
women's clothing stores and we filled them up
with dresses. The girls shopped for dresses like
they were shopping in a very high-end store.
About 50 volunteers helped, and we had to turn
more of them away.

What about next year?
Next year will be bigger and better. We'll be in
closer touch with the schools to make sure we
reach out to more girls who need them.

— Harry Kirsbaum, sta writer

REPORT A DOER...

Know a Doer — someone of any age doing interest-
ing, meaningful things in their life outside of their
job? Share suggestions with Keri Guten Cohen, story
development editor, at (248) 351-5144 or e-mail:
kcohen@thejewishnews.com

5/14

2004

10

W

ilcommen, bien
vennu, welcome."
And so we are
greeted at the start
of the musical Cabaret. Which
makes me give some thought to
greetings, both upon arrival and
at leave taking.
Shaking hands is considered
SY
MANELLO proper upon meeting someone.
This grew from a tradition that
Editorial
involved the grasping of the right
Assistant
forearm or hand of the other
party to show, by using the
.
sword or knife hand, that the hand was empty
and that there was no threat involved.
Considering the knuckle-bruising handshakes
that some feel are necessary, I wonder about that
threat concept.
Hola is a greeting in
Spanish, which may or
may not be where we
got Holla or Hollo or
finally Hello. The first
two were calls shouted
to get attention; imag-
ine the early telephones
ine
and the quality (or lack
thereof) and you can
see why shouting was a
necessity.
"How do you do?" is
often used as a greeting,
but it is not a question
that requires a response.
If you say, "I do fine.
Thank you. How do
you do?" you may be
considered a smart alec.
(The same goes for
retorting, "How do I do
what?") If you do pro-
ceed into a litany of ailments that describe in
painful detail exactly how you are, you will real-
ly turn folks off.
"Howdy" is merely a shorting of the above
greeting; it's not too surprising an occurrence in

our quick-response times.
Interesting enough, there is no equivalent to
hello in Swahili. Greetings are usually in ques-
tion-response format; people are truly interested
in how you answer.
According to the movies (our greatest link to
"reality," is it not?), the Irish say, "Top o' the
morning." (Do we then wish someone a "nice
rest of the day"?) The Aussies use the increasing-
ly popular "G'day."
Our friends in Hawaii use the multi-purpose
"Aloha" for greeting and leave taking; it's the
equivalent of "Shalom."
Usually, when we take leave (of people, not
our senses; that's a whole different problem), we
most often say, "Goodbye."
There is another product of slurring a greet-
ing. It started out as "God be with ye." Many of
us have latched on to
what used to be only
a child's response, .
"Bye-Bye." Cute, eh?
I wish-I could pre-
vail upon people to
start using a more
definite end to phone
conversations. Many
do not think that
saying good-bye is
OK for the phone,
just in person. As a
result, conversations
seem to end abruptly
as people search for
words when they
have obviously fin-
ished their business.
Very often we hear
"So long, See ya" and
the ever-present
attempt to seem
Continental, "Chow"
(which ought to be
spelled "Ciao" but what do Americans know?).
Well, since I began with a song, what better
way to end? "So long, farewell, auf Weiderseh en,
good-bye."

❑

Shabbat Candlelighting

"When my wife lights the candles, it is the moment that my work-week has ended
and my day of rest — so essential to my well-being — has begun."

Candlelighting
Friday, May 14, 8:29 p.m.

Shabbat Ends
Saturday, May 15, 9:38 p.m.

— Yaakov Burstyn, father and truck driver, Oak Park
Candlelighting
Friday, May 21, 8:36 p.m.

Shabbat Ends
Saturday, May 22, 9:46 p.m.

To submit a candelighting message, call Miriam Amzalak of the Lubavitch Women's aganization at (248) 548-6771 or e'-uutil: mtunzalak@juno.com