For Rita’s sake, prom dresses all can afford
Westminster nonprofit offers discounts and homage to a daughter’s memory
Amelia Dorman stood outside the dressing room in a gold-sequined backless gown and white athletic socks as her mother took pictures with her cellphone. Amelia had found her dress. After trying on five dresses Saturday morning, the 16-year-old Winters Mill High School junior picked out a gently used, steeply discounted dress for a coming prom after finding it at Rita’s Closet at the TownMall in Westminster.
Rita’s celebrated its grand opening Saturday. The shop will be open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout the year, selling donated formalwear for proms, weddings and other occasions.
Proceeds fund $500 to $1,000 college scholarships for local high school students. Run by volunteers, it also offers prom dresses for free in some instances.
Tamara Mediros began selling used formalwear at another Carroll County location to raise money for the program five years ago, after her daughter Rita was killed in a car crash after she had recently picked out her junior prom dress.
“It seemed like a good way to make something good out of something tragic,” Mediros said Saturday as she welcomed a steady stream of customers, most in their teens.
The store is decorated with smiling pictures of Rita. One shows her as a young girl, resting her chin in her hands; another shows her in her marching band uniform playing the mellophone; and others appear to be yearbook photos.
There is also a large picture showing her in a white satin single-strap dress with silver beading around the waist.
It was the dress she intended to wear to her prom. “It fit her like a glove,” Mediros said.
She said the nonprofit has raised $6,000, and scholarships have gone to students at Westminster High School and the Carroll County Career and Technology Center.
The recipients are chosen based on grade-point average, service to the community and an interest in the arts, she said.
Jennifer Sutton of Hampstead was shopping with her daughter, Lauryn, who is getting married in August.
Sutton was searching for a less expensive mother-of-the-bride dress in purple to match the theme color of the wedding. Sutton said many dresses she has seen elsewhere look too matronly.
“I have to look young,” she said with a smile.
Her daughter, who said she had already picked her wedding dress, was perusing some of the veils at Rita’s.
“Too bad we didn’t know this was opening” before, Sutton said, after looking at the $100 to $300 prices for wedding dresses.
For Amelia’s mother, Lisa, the trip to the shop seemed like an obvious choice. She said her daughter previously picked out a $400 dress at a Pikesville boutique, which she intends to wear to her junior prom at Winters Mill.
But on Saturday, the mother and daughter were in search of a second dress after Amelia was invited to the Westminster High prom.
“I like the sparkly look,” she said as she gazed at herself in the dressing room mirror.