Have you ever wondered what to do with the growing piles of old recital costumes and dancewear you’ve outgrown? Washington University senior Amanda Harris has the answer. Harris is a talented and dedicated student with a vision of enriching the lives of at-risk youth through the power of dance. She first began channeling her passion for dance into creating opportunities for underprivileged children when she was only a 12-year-old student in middle school.

“After a costume fitting in seventh grade, I saw my fellow dance students throwing away their perfectly good, outgrown leotards, ballet slippers, and tights,” Harris said. “I knew there had to be a better use of this dancewear.”

Following Harris’s discovery that an abundance of valuable dancewear was being thrown away and underutilized, she founded the non-profit organization, Wear then Share. Harris began placing collection bins at dance studios throughout her hometown of Atlanta. Her efforts were met with enormous success as bins overflowed with donations of gently used leotards, tights, tutus, and dance shoes. Harris then redistributed these dance essentials to organizations assisting at-risk youths and underprivileged families. However, that original idea of gathering dance clothing sparked the development of a second division of Wear then Share.

“After a few months focusing on collecting dancewear, I wanted to do more to spread the joy of dance, so I added a dance outreach program to Wear then Share that has reached hundreds of students,” Harris said. “For six years, I taught weekly jazz classes to students ages 6 to 9 at the Boys and Girls Club, and arranged for my classes to perform in my high school’s spring dance concert.”

Since its inception, both branches of Wear then Share have thrived. Harris’ organization has distributed more than $150,000 in dance clothing to numerous recipients, including a variety of homeless shelters and community centers serving Atlanta’s most disadvantaged areas. Harris also recruited friends to ensure that the legacy of offering dance classes to disadvantaged children continued to flourish after she left for college.

“During my senior year of high school, I took many steps to ensure that Wear then Share was sustainable,” Harris said. “I worked closely with peers and trained them to lead the dance outreach program, and it is my hope that students continue passing the torch.”

Harris was a recipient of the 2013 Congressional Medal for Volunteer Service. Her advisor for this accomplishment, Jackie Goldstein, marveled at Harris’s deep commitment to her charity’s success and her creative drive to help those less fortunate. She emphasized Harris’s extraordinary grasp of the pragmatic and business aspects of running the organization and her sensitivity to the needs of those less fortunate.

“Tackling the duties associated with maintaining an organization did not escape Amanda as she learned how to design and create the logo, website, physical collection bins, marketing flyers, and learned how to fundraise and produce dance performances,” Goldstein said. “The result was not only that she taught homeless children to dance, provided their costumes, and staged performances and dance recitals, but she did it in a way that expressed love and respect for them.”

Harris’s mission to share her passion and devotion to dance with underprivileged children also garnered the attention of the selection committee of the Helen Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards, which chose her as one of last year’s recipients. The prestigious Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award provides $36,000 to 15 Jewish teenagers who have exhibited exceptional leadership skills and engaged in community service programs and projects that improve the world in a meaningful way.

The Tikkun Olam Award derives from the Helen Diller Family Foundation, which seeks to strengthen Jewish identity in teenagers and cultivate their sense of responsibility and commitment to their communities, Israel, and the Jewish people.

Adam Weisberg, director of Diller Teen Initiatives, emphasized that Harris emerged as one of the winners from the 344 applicants because of her creative vision that sought to transform her commitment to dance into a viable and enduring plan for enriching the lives of children in need.

“On the one hand, she was bringing dance instruction and performance training directly to hundreds of at-risk kids while at the same time, she was also collecting thousands of dancewear items for them to wear and perform in,” Weisberg said. “Even more than all that, Amanda was impressive in that she created a sustainable project that continued and thrived even after she left her hometown to go to college.”

For Harris, life in St. Louis is brimming with management of Wear then Share, dancing, and studying as an undergraduate at Washington U., where she is majoring in anthropology (with a global health emphasis) and will minor in chemistry. She hopes to attend medical school, perhaps also earning a master’s degree in public health. Yet despite how busy she is, Harris still finds time to enjoy St. Louis attractions, restaurants, and entertainment.

“I have grown to love and appreciate St. Louis, especially the summers, with musicals at the MUNY, concerts at the Botanical Gardens, and of course Cardinal games,” Harris said. “My favorite restaurant is Seoul Taco in the Loop, and I love wandering around Forest Park.”

Harris’s boundless enthusiasm for dance has spurred her to launch Wear then Share on a national level, expanding her collection initiatives to venues in Maryland, Connecticut, Ohio, and New Jersey. To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Wear then Share and how to start an initiative in St. Louis, visit Harris’s website at wearthenshare.com.