Becca's legacy.(The Goodness Of America)

After 16-year-old Rebecca Kirtman of Davie, Florida, read a magazine article about girls at an elite boarding school who were donating their old dresses to a less-affluent school, she was motivated to help girls less fortunate than herself. Thus it was that early last year Rebecca established a dress bank to provide dresses and formal accessories for high school girls anxious to attend prom and homecoming events, but unable to buy dresses and suitable accouterments. Rebecca, then a freshman at Nova High School in Davie, wrote to sundry dress companies seeking donations. Before long, she had collected more than 250 dresses (including 200 donated by Alfred Angelo Bridal Company Stores), thereby enabling many girls in South Florida to attend special high school festivities in style.

Then on August 20, 2003, while Rebecca was driving home from orientation at the high school a few days prior to the start of her junior year, her car collided with another vehicle on rain-slick Interstate 595 and skidded under a tractor trailer. The young cheerleader and honor student did not survive.

Her father, Jay Kirtman, recalled for the Associated Press in early May of this year that in the wake of his daughter's tragic death "it was just very clear to me that I needed to do something to show how good Becca was." He, his wife, Pam, and other family members and friends decided to expand the dress bank that Rebecca had been running out of the Kirtman residence.

Today, Becca's Closet is a certified charity with a board of directors, a student board, ...