A DABAWENYA has sold her Swarovski-studded wedding gown to buy personal protective equipment (PPE) for the health workers of Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC).
On March 28, Tinjoy Agcopra-Gutierrez announced on her Facebook and Instagram that she is selling her designer wedding gown for half its price to purchase PPEs for the health workers.
“Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City has now a high rate of 23 admissions of Covid-19 positive cases. In line with this, I am now selling my beautiful wedding dress by the one and only Val Taguba and the proceeds will fully be added to purchase for our dear frontliner’s PPEs. They desperately need more of it now,” she said in her Instagram account.
She added, “P.S. Fully-studded yan ng Swarovski.”
The next day, she posted that it was sold to a lady from Davao City along with photos of the face masks that she ordered from Manila.
In a message, Tinjoy, who was once a nurse before she became a flight stewardess for an international airline, said she sold her wedding dress for P100,000 from its original price of P200,000.
“Before selling my gown, nagdodonate na po kami ng friends ko ng PPEs but I wanted to procure more. Since malaking value yung gown ko and nakatambak lang sa bahay, I thought why not sell the gown para pandagdag po sa donation,” Gutierrez shared.
She only wore the dress in December last year when she got married to her husband, Reyjhie, who is an engineer in the Middle East.
With the payment, she ordered 50 boxes of PPEs -- each containing 50 surgical masks, 22 packs of non-woven washable masks, and 11 packs of black protective masks -- which are expected to arrive next week.
“Next week, hopefully, makakuha ko N95 and suits kay wala gyud daw stocks now. Mao ang hangyo sa akong mga friends na nurses. Wala gyud daw silay makuhaan og masks sa Davao. Ang mga nagdonate pud daw sa ila puro gloves and alcohol lang (Hopefully next week, I will be able to get N95 masks and suits because there are no more stocks available. My nurse friends said they currently need masks but it is no longer available in Davao. Most of the donations are gloves and bottles of alcohol),” she said.
Asked about how hard for her to let go of the dress, she said, “Very hard gyud siya. Pero ginaisip man gud nako sayang pud if nasa box lang ang gown na worth thousands of mask (It was very hard but it would be put to waste if a hundred thousand-worth wedding gown just stays in a box).”
She said she has invested so much on the gown including her several travels to Makati to do the fittings.
“Sa final fitting nakahilak gyud ko (I cried during the final fitting). But, there are things gyud na we have to let go for the benefit of many,” Gutierrez said.
“Karon man gud, narealize nako walay value ang mga luxurious things mas nagamatter ang health nato and sa frontliners (I realized that the health of those in the frontlines is worth more than these luxurious things). Because of this crisis, makaingon nalang gyud kag mas valuable ang masks kesa sa bag (I can say that masks are more valuable than bags),” she said, pertaining to the worth of the luxury bags she used to sell.
She sold her wedding dress to one of her followers on Instagram. She said the buyer confessed that she has not found a potential groom yet.
“Ingon ko sa iya, ‘I hope makabring ug luck ang gown sa iya and mafind nya ang lalaki na sana same kind of man as my husband knowing we will be sharing the same beautiful dress’ (I told her that I hope that the dress will be her lucky charm to find the right man just like mine since we will be sharing the same beautiful dress),” she said.
“[I told her] sana alagaan nya ang dress and iinvite ko niya sa kasal (I also told her to take good care of the dress and invite me on her wedding),” she added.
She said the wedding dress is now under the care of a Davao-based designer who offered to dry clean and store it for free and the buyer will be taking it after the quarantine.