26 Oct 2009 D.C. trip ‘in the bag’

After being chosen for her academic achievement and demonstrated leadership potential, Meredith and her parents – Tray and Deanna Ott – began thinking of ways that she could raise the money. They decided to collect gently used purses and host a sale out of their home, with items donated by family and friends.

“Mom and I came up with the idea,” Meredith said.

As they began to ask for purses and circulate flyers about the project, Meredith had an idea to expand the sale to include jewelry.

“The garage was filled top to bottom,” Meredith said. “I had purses from all my family and some of my friends.”
After the items were collected, Meredith cleaned (if needed) and sorted the purses and jewelry, and began pricing. “It took a long time to get them priced.”

When the sale date rolled around, there were more than 130 purses on display as well as 300 pieces of costume jewelry – all donated to help make Meredith’s trip happen.

For Meredith, the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. was a personal goal. “I’ve always dreamed of going to the White House,” she said. “It was the best week of my life.”

While raising the money took time and a lot of work, Meredith didn’t seem to mind. “It’s been awesome and so much fun.”