Chelsea Gheesling, founder of the Good Girl Comeback, answers questions at a seminar for middle school girls.Orchard Lake — Chelsea Gheesling knows that teens are bombarded with messages from advertisers, entertainers and peers every day. She hopes her organization will offer young women a different kind of message.
Gheesling is the founder of the Good Girl Comeback, a nonprofit organization that encourages middle school and high school girls to take a stand for purity, virtue and kindness. The group’s mission statement says it “empowers teens to set goals which build confidence, kindness, and personal fulfillment.”
More than 3,000 young women have already gotten the message through Good Girl Comeback seminars and workshops. Full-day seminars include break-out sessions and talks by Gheesling and other speakers, helping girls to discover the goodness in themselves and others while strengthening their faith and virtue.
Shorter workshops focus on specific areas, such as health and fitness. The “True Beauty” workshop emphasizes modesty and inner beauty while providing make-up tips and fashion advice.
“We try to offer something for everyone to get the message out,” said Gheesling, who also provides personal coaching sessions for teens and speaks for private groups on the same topics.
Gheesling never imagined herself as a speaker and mentor to young people. After high school, she volunteered for one year with Mission Youth, a Catholic missionary program run by Regnum Christi.
“After I got back, people asked me to come to their youth group or their school and talk about my experience,” she said. “In talking with the leaders, it would come up that I had a purity ring since I was 13, or that I was waiting for marriage, and they’d say, ‘Hey, will you come back and talk about that?’”
At first, Gheesling was apprehensive about speaking to groups on the topic of purity.
“I wasn’t necessarily super excited about sharing that because it’s so personal,” Gheesling explained. “But I thought, if I’m not seeking this out and it’s happening, then this must be what God wants for me right now.”
After earning marketing and journalism degrees from Madonna University, Gheesling worked in marketing but continued to speak at schools and churches in the area. Before long, her fiancé helped her launch the nonprofit group in order to serve more young women. The first Good Girl Comeback seminar was held in November 2011.
“I come from a big Italian family who have supported me through all of this,” Gheesling said. “I talked to my middle school and high school cousins and knew that kids wouldn’t want to add another ongoing commitment to their schedules. That’s why we do one-day seminars and workshops, and then once the young women like our message, we give them other opportunities to grow.”
Those opportunities come in the form of volunteering. Once a month, Good Girl Comeback volunteers meet at Gheesling’s parish, Our Lady of Refuge in Orchard Lake, and work with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Angel’s Place. The volunteer work is open to girls and boys ages 13-18.
Thirty-five Good Girl Comeback volunteers also travel to Haiti to run a weeklong summer camp for Mission Youth, in partnership with the Missionaries of Charity. Their third trip to Haiti will take place this July.
Volunteering is an important part of the Good Girl Comeback, Gheesling said.
“When you volunteer in a place like that, you’re completely transformed as a person, and then you go home and you change your community, your parish,” she said. “You know what love is, and you know how to be selfless.”
Gheesling often receives positive feedback from parents and participants. One Haiti volunteer wrote about the trip in her college application letter and shared it with Gheesling. The letter is posted on the blog at the Good Girl Comeback’s website, www.goodgirlcomeback.com.
“Another time, a dad sat down next to me with tears in his eyes and said his daughter came to him and asked him to go shopping with her for a purity ring,” Gheesling said. “A couple years later, (the daughter) told my mom that the Good Girl Comeback changed the path she was on.”
To Gheesling, the feedback serves as confirmation that the message is bigger than her or even the nonprofit she began.
“It just goes to show that it’s certainly not my speaking abilities, or even the activities we do,” she said. “This message about dating, faith, purity, confidence — it’s what Christ wants for our lives, and all I do is share it. That really resonates with young women. When they hear the truth, they know it in their hearts.”
On July 30, the Good Girl Comeback will host a golf outing fundraiser, with proceeds to partially fund the group’s work in Haiti and also help the organization reach its next goal of offering seminars at little or no cost.
“I was blessed to hear a message like this growing up,” Gheesling said. “But what if nobody had shared it with me? I would’ve believed all those other things the world is trying to tell young people, and I never would’ve been happy or fulfilled.”
Good Girl Comeback 2015 Golf Outing
What: A golf outing to support the Good Girl Comeback’s seminars and workshops, which aim to increase virtue and confidence in young women. Proceeds also benefit an annual mission trip to Haiti.
When: Thursday, July 30
Where: Bay Pointe Golf Club, West Bloomfield Township
Register: Visit www.goodgirlcomback.com or email [email protected] Those interested in supporting the Good Girl Comeback by attending the gourmet dinner only or by making a donation may visit the website. All contributions are tax deductible.
