BENTONVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A Northwest Arkansas bride is counting her blessings tonight after her wedding dress was accidentally donated to the Bentonville Goodwill.
With her wedding only four months away, people in the community came together to help her get it back. The soon-to-be bride, Bailey Dobson, was still in shock knowing that hundreds of Northwest Arkansans joined her search for the dress after it was donated.
In fact, you might recognize this Facebook post asking the community to help her get it back:
Dobson said more than 500 people shared it within a couple of hours and it started a chain reaction she didn’t believe was possible.
Dobson is in the middle of moving before her big day in four months, so her parents had a garage sale to help her downsize, getting rid of things like old dresses.
“They had kept all of my old prom and homecoming dresses and all of those things were in one closet,” said Dobson. “My wedding dress was bagged up, not in a clear bag, with everything else.”
Everything that didn’t sell was then donated to the Bentonville Goodwill, including her wedding dress. Upon finding out, Dobson called the store only to be told the dress had been sold.
“We get phone calls often or some frantically come back into the location saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this has been dropped off. This is it was by accident, what can we do?'” said Goodwill Regional Director of Retail Operations, Cathy Magner.
Magner said they always help track down items donated by mistake, but this time they took it a step further and created a social media campaign as well to help.
Through the power of social media, people found the person who bought the dress through their listing on eBay. Dobson said she was glad it wasn’t another bride who purchased her dress, but rather someone looking to resell it.
Dobson said the person was happy to return it to her. In fact, the meeting went so well that Dobson even invited her to her wedding.
“It’s been crazy to see like how people will come together for somebody that they do not know,” Dobson said. “I literally am at a loss of words because only in Northwest Arkansas will something like that happen.”
Magner said this is a good reminder to double-check the items you’re donating.
