Nonprofit helps take cost out of prom preparations
When 15-year-old Emily Nguyen, a sophomore at Klein Oak High School, discovered the local nonprofit Giving Gown Foundation, she decided to call immediately to find out how she could help.
“I have a bunch of dresses that I wear one time and then never do anything with,” she said. “They just sit in my closet.”
Nguyen assumed she was not the only one in this position. “There are probably thousands of girls out there that have dresses in their closet they only wear one time, too,” she said. “I figured I could put those dresses to use.”
Earlier in the year, Nguyen had started a club on campus called RAKE, which stands for Random Acts of Kindness Etc.
She thought that her club would be the ideal vehicle to help the Giving Gown Foundation, which provides opportunities for young women in the area to attend prom, regardless of their ability to buy a
dress for the occasion.
Throughout March, members of RAKE collected dresses, jewelry and shoes to donate to the group and also added drawstring bags of toiletries for recipients. They delivered all the items to the Giving Gown Foundation in time for the group’s annual give-away, Boutique Day, which was held in early April.
Thanks to Nguyen’s efforts and hundreds of others like her who donated dresses and time to the nonprofit, many high school girls will be able to attend prom, who otherwise would not have made it due to the cost of dresses and accessories.
JoAnn Trchalek founded the Giving Gown Foundation in 2008.
Registration to participate in the program starts in December of each year. The Giving Gown Foundation sends information throughout the community, focusing on schools.
The girls pick a day to come in and work oneon-one with a volunteer, who helps them assemble the whole prom ensemble – dress, shoes, purse, a make-up kit and jewelry. The Bammel Church of Christ located on 1960 donated space to serve as a boutique for the foundation.
Cassie Miller became director of operations for the Giving Gown Foundation four years ago. She started out as a volunteer.
“I came for a two-hour shift and ended up staying for the entire day,” she said. “Then, I came back the next day. I just got sucked in.”
Miller said that the dress is only part of the nonprofit’s purpose. “It’s so hard to be a teenager,” she said. “There are unrealistic expectations for beauty and wealth. We really want the girls to know they are beautiful just the way they are.”
Miller said MW Cleaners collects dresses yearround throughout the community. This year, the nonprofit was able to serve 1,100 girls.
“We pair them with personal shoppers who guide them through the boutique,” Miller said. “What’s important to us is that they get the attention and oneon-one care.”
Miller explained that prom can cost hundreds of dollars to attend. “We don’t want anyone to struggle to go to prom,” she said.
The Giving Gown Foundation hosts fundraisers and accepts donations year round. The group accepts new or like-new formals and is especially in need of plus sizes. It also accepts jewelry, shoes, handbags and unopened cosmetics, including samples.
A few schools in the area have made dedicated efforts to help the Giving Gown Foundation, including Klein Forest High School, which collected 130 dresses for the cause.
Other schools have followed the Giving Gown model and started their own events, including Klein High School, where the student council guided the effort.
“We’re doing basically what Giving Gown does, but we’re just doing it locally at our school,” the club’s sponsor Misty Kroon said. “There are a lot of girls who stress about prom dresses. They just want to feel pretty, and we want to take the financial burden from the girls so they can have that senior experience and have fun.”
Kroon said the school will continue collecting dresses until prom and then start requesting donations for homecoming.
DeWanda Richard, student council sponsor at Spring High School, has been collecting dresses since January and will continue through the end of April.
“There are students out there who need a dress,” she said. “We just want to make sure to provide them with that and make it as comfortable an experience as possible.”
Susan Bates, associate principal at Klein Collins, serves as prom fairy godmother for her school.
“Teachers bring me dresses; kids bring me dresses,” she said. “We get dresses from all over the place. It’s like a village, and everyone helps.”
She also collects shoes and purses and brings in make-up artists, floral arrangers and manicurists for girls in need.
Teachers, counselors and other students alert Bates of candidates for the program — girls who might miss prom for financial reasons. She then dives in to assist them in whatever ways necessary, including purchasing prom tickets.
Bates will be helping students up until the day of prom.
“For some of these kids, this is the only chance they get to dress up,” she said. “I don’t think anybody should miss prom. If they can’t go because they can’t afford a dress or tickets ... well, that should never happen.”