By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
For every tormented child, there is a tormentor.
Sometimes, there is another bystander – one who wants to act, but fears the repercussions.
And, as author Eleanor Estes learned as a child in World War I, a child sometimes doesn’t get the chance to apologize.
The author, who wrote “The Hundred Dresses” in 1944 and won a Newberry Honor for it, had the book published as an attempt to redress a childhood wrong made to a young girl she went to school with.
The book has not been out of print since, and for the 2014-15 school year, the female students at Dyer Intermediate School formed their own club – The Hundred Dresses Club.
The year-long character education group ended with a celebration at Dyer last week, where more than 140 girls – about 70 percent of the females at Dyer – who took part in the club wore dresses (or something else they preferred), had cake and punch and celebrated what they’d spent the year learning.
Andrea Donegan, one of two school counselors at Dyer, joined with Becky Hoesly in September to start the club.
Students gave up four lunch or recess periods to read the book with a small group of their classmates. The girls also participated in activities and discussions that addressed the topic of bullying, as well as the difference of being an “upstander instead of a bystander.”
Donegan said Tuesday that she regards the book as a “classic,” and the lessons students can learn are timeless.
“The whole goal of the group is to work with girls about bullying,” Donegan said. “When I invited them to participate, I talked with them about … being part of the solution. Being part of a group that will not allow bullying to happen at Dyer.
“It was a cause they believed in and wanted to help with,” she added.
In Estes’ book, a young Polish girl named Wanda wears the same ragged but clean dress to school every day. In trying to fit in, she tells the rest of her class that she has 100 dresses at home.
That gives the girls – in particular, the two main characters, Peggy and Maddie – something to tease Wanda about. Wanda ends up leaving the school, but the book reveals the truth of the 100 dresses, and also how one of the two main characters learns a lesson of how to stand up for what she believes.
The book also touches on the theme of peer pressure, how young people will go along to get along and hope not to become targets themselves. Estes’ daughter, Helena, has since written a foreword to the book, explaining her mother was Maddie – the young girl who didn’t stand up to her best friend.
It’s the kind of lesson Donegan wanted her students to learn.
During the assembly last week – in addition to the celebration – the winner of a drawing was announced. A similar contest is central to the plot of the book, and the winner was fifth grader McKayla Hanna.
“The purpose was to bring all the girls together,” Donegan explained. “We are making this statement.”
More than 30 parents also joined the event, which featured a video called “Choose Beautiful.” The video teaches a lesson to girls and women about finding beauty in themselves, and believing in what they find.
The lessons of the yearlong club seemed to be absorbed by the girls who took part.
“You learned about other people and you were looking at yourself about, like, how you are,” said Ysabel Carrillo. “Instead of being someone else, you’re just you.”
Added Tinker Trent, “I love the book. It brought a good message. It doesn’t matter, like, how you dress or anything. It’s how you are inside.”
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