Prom is one of the biggest moments in high school.
It’s where memories are made. It’s one last hoorah to the school year before graduation.
But for many teens in the area, finding that special dress or piece of jewelry for prom comes at a high cost. Many can’t afford to attend prom because of the exorbitant price tags that come along with it.
But one group of Navarre High School students stepped up to the plate last Saturday to help make it a little easier on teens and their parents by handing out free prom dresses inside Navarre High School.
NHS senior Mariah Whitworth and other members of the high school group Hope Nation set up shop inside Room 164 and helped hand out dresses and other prom essentials like shoes and jewelry. And the prom essentials went home with each student at no cost to them.
Whitworth said that Hope Nation came up with the idea three years ago and that Whitworth’s then co-president of the club helped launch the idea. Since her co-president’s departure from the club after graduation, Whitworth has taken over to help run the event. But this year, she said the club ran into a little snag preparing for the giveaway.
“Last year we had a big turnout, and this year no one knew the date for prom, and we found out a few weeks ago,” Whitworth said. “So I had to pull a date out of the sky to do it. We had 10 people here this morning.”
This year’s prom is falling on April 16, which gave the group little time to prepare for the giveaway.
Last year, the senior said a few dozen people came out to pick out a dress or other prom essentials.
All of the dresses are donated to the club and most of them, Whitworth said, had only been worn once. Then they were thrown back in a closet.
“People just come and bring them in. We get a lot of old dresses from people from previous years that they used to use,” Whitworth said. “Prom dresses are really expensive.”
How expensive?
Some can go for as much as $600.
“Mine was $300. But why go out and spend $300 when you can get a nice one that no one wears or only wore once?” Whitworth said. “Girls don’t wear the same dress for every special occasion. They usually wear it once, and that’s it.”
The group plans to keep hosting the annual prom essentials drive to help less fortunate students.
