Utah family searching for heirloom baptism dress accidentally donated to DI

UTAH COUNTY, Utah — A mother in Utah County is hopeful the community can help her find a family treasure that ended up in a thrift store because of a family friend’s mistake.

Holli Rogerson is desperate to get her daughter’s baptism dress back after it inadvertently was donated to a Deseret Industries thrift store in American Fork.

Thinking of fond memories from the past, when Rogerson looks back at photos from her daughter Kyra’s 2015 baptism, she sees special pieces from her own past.

Rogerson spent months hand-sewing the dress that would mark a huge milestone in her daughter’s life.

“It’s such a wonderful moment in time, and their time to shine, and have the attention on them,” Rogerson said.

To help her daughter shine, Rogerson used a sentimental, special fabric for the dress.

“By that time, I had married again, and so we actually used some of the material from both wedding dresses,” Rogerson said.

Using fabric from her first marriage to Kyra’s father for the body of the dress, and lace from her second marriage to Kyra’s stepfather for the sleeves, the baptism dress became a symbol of what Rogerson wanted to pass down to her daughter.

“We just wanted to surround her in love, and give her those pieces that she could keep forever and pass on to her kids,” she explained.

But after letting a family friend borrow Kyra’s baptism dress recently, Rogerson found out Monday that person accidentally passed it on to somewhere else.

Describing how that family friend was doing some cleaning, Rogerson said it got placed in a pile of clothes for donation and taken to the American Fork Deseret Industries thrift store.

Rushing to that DI Tuesday morning, Rogerson found out there’s no way to track where the dress ended up — especially because the family friend guesses they donated it a month ago.

It’s not in that store, she said, and DI told her it could either have been shipped to another location or they may have already sold the family’s priceless piece.

“I was just in disbelief,” Rogerson said. “I think just heartache, heartbroken. Not just for me, but for Kyra.”

After making a post on Facebook and in a community group, Rogerson expressed how grateful she was that people were quick to message her that they will be keeping an eye out at their local DI stores.

She hopes someone will recognize the little dress with its lace sleeves and return it to the family, and with that, hopes there’s still time to keep passing down the memories.

“That would be something that she could take with her forever,” Rogerson said, if the dress was found. “And every time she looked at the dress, she would know what a miracle it was.”