From Homeless to Glamorous

Teen has her night at the prom

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, May 12, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

For a few blissful hours on Friday night, a Gresham girl forgot she was homeless.

Jamie Sparks, glamorous in red satin and a sparkly tiara, danced the night away at her first prom thanks to the generosity of local businesses and residents who donated everything from transportation to dinner.

“It was one of the best nights of my life,” said the 17-year-old David Douglas High School senior, who attended her friend Logan Webb’s prom at Fir Ridge High School on May 8. “I was in a dress just like the other girls. I looked good just like the other girls. And I had fun just like the other girls. And that was really cool. I felt just like everybody else.”

Sparks moved into My Father’s House, a Gresham shelter for homeless families, in late April with her mother Jodi McCarthy, sister Jayde McCarthy, 11, and brother Joel McCarthy, 9.

It’s the latest stop of many for Sparks, who’s bounced from foster homes and relatives’ houses since seventh grade, when her mother was arrested for burglary and auto theft.

She’s lived with an aunt in Southeast Portland, her grandmother in Molalla and her 21-year-old sister in Oregon City. But a year ago, seeing stability in her mother’s new life, she decided to give her another chance.

Jamie moved into her mom’s two-bedroom apartment on Southeast 122nd Avenue just south of Powell Boulevard. Jodi, an unemployed machinist, earned $632 a month in welfare, just three dollars less than her $635 rent. Food stamps kept food on the table for her three children and emergency energy assistance from Human Solutions kept the heat and lights on.

Christmas eviction

But when the state cut Jodi’s welfare by $200, the family was evicted the day after Christmas. After opening presents from the children’s schools, the family literally chucked out the Christmas tree, boxed up belongings and fought frozen roads to move them to a storage unit.

“We didn’t have anywhere to go,” Jodi recalled. She doesn’t have a car, so the family – with a blanket, pillow, small television and a bit of food in the fridge – hunkered down in the apartment until police forced them out.

The family moved in with Jodi’s sister, who lives in the David Douglas school district where the children go to school. Every day, starting at 8 a.m., Jodi called and visited social service agencies – JOIN, Union Gospel Mission, Central City Concern and Catholic Charities – trying to find a new home for her family.

Meanwhile, Jamie’s friend at Fir Ridge High School suggested she go to his prom. Jamie assumed she’d find a cheap dress and forgo the event’s other bells and whistles. As for transportation, she thought they’d either walk or take TriMet. “I figured that if I wanted it bad enough, we’d figure out a way,” she said.

Her mother wasn’t so sure. “I knew the cost of just the dress would break me,” Jodi said. Away from the children at night, she cried at the thought of all she couldn’t provide.

Then, after badgering My Father’s House Executive Director Cathe Wiese with weeks of daily phone calls, she learned that a room opened up.

The new shelter, big enough for 30 families, opened in December just as the family was evicted. It replaces a long ago outgrown home-based shelter on Division Street and is now the largest privately funded family shelter of its kind in the country.

After the family moved in, Volunteer Manager Heather Wiese caught wind of Jamie’s prom plans. She went to work, reaching out to local businesses to make the night special.

Community pitches in

Abby’s Closet, a local charity that outfits high school girls in free prom dresses, provided the dress. A My Father’s House volunteer provided free alterations. Another volunteer drove Jamie from school to Hidden Beauty Spa and Color Studio in Gresham, where she received a professional cosmetics makeover. Back at My Father’s House, Jodi gave her daughter a manicure and zipped up the back of her new dress.

A snazzy black Pontiac Bonneville, courtesy of All American Limousine of Troutdale, chauffeured Jamie and her date to Bumpers Bar & Grill in Fairview. There they dined on steak and shrimp scampi thanks to a $50 gift certificated donated by the restaurant. “It was so good,” Jamie gushed. “It was like Olive Garden, but three times better. People are like, ‘Dude, that’s not possible.’ And I’m a huge Olive Garden lover!”

Capturing it all with digital photography was Jennifer Hummel of Hummel Photography. Two years ago, Hummel, then 22, found herself homeless with her 2-year-old son, Paxton. After a week couch surfing and sleeping in her car, she spent two months at My Father’s House before her tax return funded a new apartment.

Since then she’s launched a photography business and jumped at the chance to give back to the organization that helped her. “Special moments like this should be captured in a creative way,” Hummel said. “It all just worked out.”

Jamie and her date, who also was celebrating his 18th birthday, danced until their feet were sore. Her date – with his red vest, red striped tie and shiny black and white bowling inspired shoes – was even honored as best dressed male student.

“The only way it could have been better is if I was in love with him,” Jamie said.

She planned the night in such detail that she had thank you notes prepared for each benefactor, handing them to the makeup artist and driver as the evening progressed. In hindsight, she wishes she’d have waited until after the prom to make each note more personal.

“To see that people actually do care in more ways than I thought, it was amazing,” Jamie said.

The entire night was a dream, a break from the frustrations of life as a homeless teenager.

You can help

My Father’s House can be reached at 503-492-3046 and tax-deductible contributions can be sent to P.O. Box 1147, Gresham, OR 97030. The donation center is located at 5003 West Powell Blvd., and is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays, noon to 4 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays. A list of needed donations — everything from jelly to cleaning sponges — is available online at www.familyshelter.org.