Mary Mecham makes a great Cinderella with her blue gown, pearl necklace and elbow-length gloves. But far from attending balls and traveling by pumpkin, Mecham had something far more important to do, of late.

“I went around to 15 different shelters and tried to cheer up the kids,” she said. “If you just lost your homes, then you could probably use a bit of magic, right?”

A Houston native and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mecham wanted to help with the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts after the tropical storm left 40 to 52 inches of water in southeast Texas and Louisiana. The only trouble was, she wasn’t quite sure how to do it.

“A lot of people had trucks, they had boats, and they were going around rescuing people,” she said. “I don’t have a truck, I don’t have a boat and I was trying to figure out . . . ‘What can I do?' All the shelters already had so many donations. When I went and dropped off donations, I felt like it wasn’t really making a dent anywhere.”

The mother of two also noticed that the children in the shelters seemed frightened and confused.

“All the kids there were just kind of sad . . . and none of them really moved from their cots very much because they were in an unfamiliar place and didn’t know what to do,” she said.

And then it struck Mecham that she could cheer them up. Employed part-time for a company that hosts tea parties for little girls, Mecham was able to borrow a princess outfit from her employer. As she traveled to different shelters, Mecham offered hugs and posed for photos with any child who wanted one.

“They just thought it was the best thing in the world,” Mecham said.

The visits didn’t end there, though. Mecham also sang songs, read books and practiced princess etiquette with girls at the shelter. Proper twirling, hand-waving, curtsying and a princess parade were also a part of the agenda.

Mecham put away her Cinderella costume as the shelter’s occupants were relocated or moved in with host families. But the experience gave her new perspective on what it means to serve others, she said.

“My family didn’t have to evacuate,” said Mecham. “It would be really, really easy for us just to be in our bubble and think, ‘Oh, well, you know, it’s fine, nowhere around here is flooded. No one really needs my help.’

“Going out and seeing these little kids . . . It was eye-opening to me that no matter how good I have it, there’s always someone that could need some help.”