Prom dress inspires charitable effort
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, January 6, 2026
An Oak Harbor High School alum made a difference on another continent in a unique way.
Susan Lindgren, a travel, lifestyle and mindset coach now living abroad in Vietnam, published to her YouTube channel on Dec. 20 a story recounting how she raised $2,000 for the construction of a clean water well in Tanzania.
Her fundraising method of choice? Wearing her prom dress to her 30th high school reunion in 2015.
Lindgren graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 1985. Although she later moved to Southern California, she visited Oak Harbor multiple times a year to spend holidays with family. Lindgren left her job in software in 2014, itching to explore the world and commit herself to philanthropy in ways her previous work schedule made it hard to.
“When we have two weeks of vacation a year, it’s hard to go to places like Africa,” she explained in an interview.
Lindgren likes to financially support causes close to her friends’ hearts, but she also likes to know the money she donates is actually going to the right place. So she joined the nonprofit Everyday People Initiating Change, or E.P.I.C.
E.P.I.C. brings clean water to rural villages in Tanzania at the guidance of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. Providing access to clean water can have a ripple effect in a country, putting health, education and equality within reach as well.
Run by a small team, the nonprofit keeps operating costs low, ensuring 100% of donations are invested in the communities it helps, according to E.P.I.C.’s website. To participate and to fund the cost of constructing a well, Lindgren needed to raise money through fundraising to make the effort community-driven.
Lindgren got a wild hair. She bought her prom dress — an extravagant hot pink dress — from a bridesmaid at the wedding she attended as a teenager for what she thinks may have been $40 or $50. She never thought she would wear it again until she rediscovered it digging through boxes in her parents’ garage.
Lindgren posted on her graduating class’ Facebook page, declaring her intentions to wear the dress to their 30-year reunion in Oak Harbor and slow dance with one of her classmates if she raised $1,500 for her trip to Africa.
“Honestly, what I was thinking at that time was, ‘I’m not gonna raise $1,500. Fifteen hundred dollars is a lot of money … but chances are I’m not gonna have to go through with this,’” she said.
Donations rolled in faster than she expected, and she hit her fundraising goal in less than 24 hours.
While she does not recall how people reacted to her dress in high school, she vividly remembers her casually-dressed classmates’ reactions to it the night of the reunion.
“I start walking out into the room, there’s people everywhere — there’s people eating, talking, and you see people like drop their fork, jaws drop,” she recalled in her video, mimicking the surprised faces of her peers. “The people that hadn’t been paying attention or didn’t see the Facebook post are like, ‘What’s happening right now?’”
Lindgren delivered on her slow dance, as promised, but her dance partner thought of a way to generate a little more cash. He announced that anyone who donated at least $20 could take a turn dancing with Lindgren, and their classmates clamored for a chance. By the night’s end, Lindgren had collected another $500 towards her trip.
Asking for donations can sometimes be “awkward,” Lindgren explained in an interview, but that night, she felt a sense of camaraderie and connection with her graduating class.
Lindgren flew to Tanzania and helped build the well, which she said made a “drastic difference” in the lives of the people there. She made a point to share the experience online so those who financially supported her could see their money at work.
“I’m taking pictures of the bricks and I’m taking pictures of the kids, so you can see their eyes and their smiles, and the kids come out and help us, and they’re so enthusiastic,” she said. “I was sharing a lot of that on my Facebook because I wanted people to see that their money is asking a difference, and that everybody has a different role in this whole process.”
Lindgren felt changed by the experience for the better.
“You just see the huge difference it makes in people’s lives,” Lindgren said in an interview. “So that was very humbling and rewarding.”
Watch Lindgren’s video, “How my 80s High School Prom Dress Raised $2000 for Clean Water Wells in Africa” on her YouTube channel at youtube.com/@WhatSusanDoes. Lindgren also provides updates on life abroad on her Instagram page at instagram.com/whatsusandoes.
