PORTAGE, Mich. — An accidental Goodwill donation was only realized decades later.
A West Michigan woman is now asking her community for help in finding her sister's wedding dress.
More than 101 million people in the U.S. and Canada donate to Goodwill, hoping their old clothing and household goods will be repurposed.
After one woman accidentally donated her sister's wedding dress in Portage, she took to social media in hopes to get it back so her niece can use it for her wedding.
"I know it's a real extreme long shot, but I thought if I posted the dress on social media and got enough people to share that maybe we'd be able to track the dress down," said Mari-Frances Greipp, who accidentally donated her sister's wedding dress to Goodwill back in 1998.
Twenty-three years have passed since Greipp brought what she thought was her wedding dress to the Goodwill in Portage, Michigan.
"I woke up last Friday morning to a very strange text from my middle sister that had a picture of my niece wearing an old wedding dress of mine," said Greipp.
The dress her niece was wearing was the dress she was certain she donated back in 1998.
"I know my sister and her family love to look for finds at Goodwill, and I thought for a minute in some strange twisted events that they had found my dress recycled in an Indiana Goodwill, but that wasn't the case," said Greipp.
The two sisters realized the dresses could have switched accidentally after their own weddings.
"We both got married in 1993, and my mom offered to have our dresses cleaned and restored and sealed. She took both dresses to the dry cleaners at the same time. We're thinking there's a dry cleaner mixed up," said Greipp.
Both of them never looked in the boxes until now.
Greipp said her niece just got engaged, and her sister wanted her to have her dress.
"It'd be nice if my niece at least had the option to use her mother's wedding dress for her wedding. My sister did bother to move it six times through six house moves with her, and I would like them to have the option to use it," said Greipp.
While Greipp knows it is a long shot, she is asking anyone who may have purchased a wedding dress from Goodwill that looks like the ones in the photos to check. The family said they would love to have the dress back to use for the wedding.
