Sara Smith donned a wedding dress just months after her October wedding to make a statement with about 20 other women, all decked out in white gowns.
The red X's on their hands said it all.
End it.
On Thursday, Feb. 23, the resale bridal boutique Free Ever After, 2469 N. Country Club Road, invited Tucson women to pick a dress and ink an X as part of the #Enditmovement to raise awareness about human trafficking.
The End It Movement encouraged people to post selfies of themselves with the red X on their hands on Thursday, Feb. 23.
Smith, 27, came to Free Ever After to give back to the nonprofit where she found her wedding gown, which she returned to the shop after her own wedding.
Sara Smith, 27, poses for photographer Susannah Townsend, 22.
The women who gathered at the shop for the photoshoot ranged in ages from their teens to their 60s, plus several sweet kiddos in tow. Their photos joined others online Thursday as the End It Movement urged people to post selfies of themselves with that red X to get people thinking about human trafficking.
"This is about awareness and prevention..." Abigail Wilhelm, the operations manager at Free Ever After, told the group Thursday. "It's a joy for us to see these dresses put on and new life brought to them."
Kelsey Collins, 26, and her mother, Carol Peterson, 57, spent the afternoon together at Free Ever After for the End It Movement.
Photographer Susannah Townsend, 22, tells her sister Rachel Townsend, 20, how to pose and best show off the X on her hand.
Free Ever After sells donated wedding dresses to new brides and then uses those proceeds to support and mentor survivors of sex trafficking. Just like these dresses get new lives, so too do the women they support.
From right to left, Alexa Iwaniuk, Emily VanWagenen, Lisa VanWagenen and Sara Smith help each other with their selected wedding dresses.
As the women ducked behind curtains to swap street clothes for bridal wear Thursday, Smith gasped.
Alexa Iwaniuk, a 29-year-old volunteer with Free Ever After, had just stepped into the room wearing a gown.
"That's my wedding dress!" Smith said.
New life indeed.
