At 10:05 a.m., a little later than expected, the women from DeKalb Enterprise’s day program walked through the door of First Impressions.

Jody Wilson was already waiting, excited about the impact her clothing shop was making in the lives of her customers.

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SANDIE LEVINE / Special

Dawn Mack checks out a dress at First Impressions, where an outfit costs $1.

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After years of raising a daughter with a developmental disability, Wilson had instincts.

If she had antennae for every time she saw a woman wearing old clothes, clothes that didn’t fit, clothes covered in stains, they would’ve trembled.

It would have been easy for Wilson to just look the other way. So many of us do, but here’s part of the gift of loving someone the rest of society might overlook.

Wilson realized that any one of those women could have been her daughter, gainfully employed but still needing help putting herself together.

“Even people with special needs need to go to work well presented,” Wilson said. “That’s part of your commitment to do your best.”

Wilson grew up around women’s fashion and worked in the business while in college. Her father and uncles were traveling salesmen. So too were a few of her friends.

She was talking to one of them about a year ago when the idea of a clothing bank popped into her head.

“I knew if there was a good cause, they’d be willing to give,” said Wilson.

She also knew there were hundreds of women with developmental disabilities like those from DeKalb Enterprises who needed them.

Her friend gladly donated 200 outfits and then another 150, new designer samples. Word spread about the clothing bank, and the donations kept coming.

Salesmen are always good about rallying behind a cause, and this was no different.

The only thing Wilson needed now was a place to open shop. She found it in a rear boardroom at the Developmental Disabilities Council of DeKalb County.

First Impressions, now in its fifth month, is open for two-hour appointments, twice a month on Tuesdays, at 10 a.m., 12 noon and 2 p.m.

You might assume people with developmental disabilities don’t care about their appearance. They do care.

“They walk in heads hung low, but when they walk out, they’re smiling,” said Sheryl Arno, executive director at the DDC.

You’d have to be there, see it with your own eyes, but it’s true what Arno says about those smiles. It’s like magic. The women enter a dressing room. Wilson and her team of volunteers work their magic. They come out and stand in front of a mirror. They smile. No, they beam like the sun on a summer day.

If that were all there was to say about First Impressions, it would be enough, but there’s more. You see this isn’t just about the clothes. It’s about helping these women find the right fit, about lifting their self-esteem and causing the community to look more favorably at them.

At a buck per outfit, this may be the one place in the world where you get more than you pay for.

That’s the thing you love most about First Impressions.

The clothes are a dollar, but that good feeling you get inside is priceless.

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