Teenagers today are obsessed with appearance, status, and popularity. This is extremely apparent come prom time for female students. Societal forces are so strong that these adolescents feel compelled to purchase dresses and other material items from top designers that are often way out of their price range. After adding on expenses for the tickets, hair, makeup, nails, and limos, the final price for a girl attending the prom could easily been in excess of $800.
Is this a fair burden that any student should feel they have to carry even in a good economy? The recent recession has had a drastic effect on families across the country and taught our nation that we must live more within our means. Convincing high school students to buy into this philosophy is easier said than done.
In order to attract high school girls to attend, we developed this vision of having a gala where they would be active participants in the development and implementation of the event. Several brainstorming and planning meetings took place between staff, students, and the New Milford Woman’s Club prior to a formal announcement of the night.
The idea of schools and communities collecting gently used dresses for students to wear and reduce the financial burden placed on young girls is not new. When I researched the idea, I found that many other organizations set up simple events where girls would just come to a central location and pick out a dress. What made our idea unique was the way in which we packaged a simple idea and transformed it into a student-driven, formal event that would hammer home an important message with a lasting impact.
A date of January 30, 2010 was set for the Project Prom Dress gala. Now came the challenge of collecting dresses. Initially, we were not sure how many dresses we would be able to collect. Using word-of-mouth, flyers, and Facebook, the message was sent to family, friends, and alumni to donate dresses. During the course of 25 days from January 4 through 29, over 220 dresses were collected while NMHS staff and members of the New Milford Woman’s Club meticulously planned the gala event.
The idea was shared with the local media and quickly embraced as a news-worthy event. Both 1010WINS and CBS News Channel 2 to reported the story prior to the event.
It was a grand event consisting of a fashion show where current students modeled donated dresses, raffles were held, music played, and food was available. All raffles and food were donated by local vendors that cater to prom attendees. The grand prize raffle, a $200 gift certificate to Danielle’s Place in New Milford, came from Linda McMahon. The significance behind Linda’s donation is that she resides in San Francisco, CA and was so touched by the event that she felt compelled to donate a significant gift to one lucky senior.
After the gala, junior and senior girls then selected their dresses and tried them on in the guidance suite that was transformed into a changing room. In all, over 85 dresses were taken home that night. Video footage of the event can be viewed on YouTube and Vimeo. More press followed: a local newspaper reported on the event shortly after.
Days after the event, sophomore and freshman students were invited to go through the dresses that remained during their lunch or after school. When it was all said and done, female students from NMHS claimed close to 200 of the 220 dresses! The few dresses that were left over were donated to a local charity organization.
Project Prom Dress not only taught students a lesson, but it also empowered them to make fiscally responsible decisions and get past the stigma of status and money. It also illustrated the power of collaboration between the school and community in order to promote change that will have a positive impact on kids.
Students today should be afforded the opportunity to fully enjoy priceless moments and memories that encompass events like the prom while not worrying about the cost. Being able to provide this powerful lesson is why I love being an educator.
Related posts:
Tags: chic, Community Impact, environmentally friendly, Eric Shenniger, fiscally responsible, fundraiser, gala event, New Milford High School, New Milford Women's Club, Project Prom Dress, prom dresses, Student Impact, used clothing, Worthy Cause
Hi, I love this .it’s really useful to me. If you are on the lookout for other I may have tried to help in the hyperlink of mine .Please check my hyperlink, You’ve may founds some other things you like .Thank You.
[...] one school, re-selling used prom dresses made the school a lot of money while saving the girls a lot of money, [...]
That is so great! While it may not be a new concept, can’t say I’ve heard of it before. I’ll have to remember this when the time comes for my daughters’ proms. Thank you for sharing it!