Beautiful Young Men

"Beautiful men" was the title of a blog post I wrote a few weeks back.

Now, let me address some beautiful young men.

First, some background. I collaborate with three teen librarians as part of my job at my local library.

This past Saturday, we had a "Say Yes to the Prom Dress" event in order to offer teen girls the chance to snag a formal gown in exchange for a canned good.

I talk a lot about the screwy weather in northern Illinois, but Saturday's weather was the weirdest I have seen in a long while. The temperature was hovering around freezing, winds were gusting to 50 mph, and bright sunshine was displaced every half-hour or so by sideways snow showers.

It also was the last weekend of spring break for local kids.

And yet... eight teens showed up at 8 a.m. to help run the event.

Among them were two young men who seemed like they felt a bit out of place. They may have been pondering why they had signed up to help at this event at all.

Still, they moved clothing racks full of dresses and helped stage the area so everything would be ready when the girls started arriving at 9 a.m.

They even volunteered to man the table where the girls would check in. This meant they needed to explain several things, including how the sizes were arranged.

Thanks, guys!

When they joked that they had no clue about girls' dress sizes, I told them it would be a good thing to become familiar with clothing sizes so that one day, when they are shopping for a gift for their girlfriend or wife, they would have an idea about what size to buy. (No woman likes to be gifted with a dress that is four sizes too big or small.)

So they went about their task with all the sincerity they could muster. They stayed until the end of the event at 4 p.m., and then helped move all those clothing racks into storage, ripped paper off the windows in the room that was used as a fitting room, and replaced all the chairs and tables that had been moved to create the pop-up boutique.

Their only reward was a few slices of pizza for lunch.

Young men like these give me so much hope! They can be goofy and rambunctious, but they also can be gallant and remarkably helpful.

They are becoming beautiful men who will in turn make others feel pretty, and in some cases, even beautiful.

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Some of the girls who said "yes!" are pictured below.