Students find perfect prom dresses at pop-up Free Prom Dress Boutique

Photo courtesy of Theresa Herron

The Manchester Ladies Society held their 4th annual Free Prom Dress Boutique on Friday, March 17th after school in the High School library and student activities room. All girls going to prom were invited to come try on and pick out a dress for free.

Organizers started this year with 235 formals, all donated throughout the year and in previous years for this purpose. Twenty girls were able to find their perfect prom dresses this year! On top of that, organizers were able to connect with a group of girls in transitional housing in Ann Arbor through a contact, and donate almost 30 dresses that were less formal out of the collection.

Ladies Society member, Theresa Herron stated, ”The Prom Dress Boutique has evolved a bit, over the years. We've always wanted to see girls that might have a hard time affording a dress, but also girls who maybe could afford one but just don't want to spend the money on a single-use dress. This year, we also helped some girls with housing issues from outside the community, which was such a good use of our dress collection. Finally, we had a few really creative girls who just wanted something different from the dress they could have found at the mall. All of those girls were reasons to continue this event, so I hope we keep getting the wonderful community support we've gotten in the past."

The Ladies Society would like to thank all of the women who donated the dresses and enabled this event to occur, the Manchester High School for allowing them to host the event in their space and the Manchester District Library for collecting dresses year round at their front desk for the Lades Society to use at this event. Organizers stated that they will be continuing and possibly expanding the Free Prom Dress Boutique next year. If you have a clean formal dress you would like to donate for next year's Boutique, you can drop it off at the library's front desk, anytime they are open. The Ladies Society is a 501c3 non-profit and you will be provided with a receipt for your taxes.

Students looking through dresses. Two of the total five racks shown in this photo. Photo courtesy of Theresa Herron.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.