About 1,200 local high school students experienced their Cinderella moments on Saturday at the 20th annual prom dress drive, walking into the the Hynes Convention Center looking like everyday teens and leaving decked out in jewelry, makeup, high heels, handbags, and gowns.
The invitation-only event allows pre-qualified high school juniors and seniors in need to find their prom attire and accessories free of charge, so the expense isn’t a barrier to them attending the big dance, organizers said.
When a girl arrives at “Boutique Day,” she’s paired with a personal shopper, a volunteer who helps her one-on-one to choose and try on five dresses until she finds her fit. If one set of five doesn’t work, it’s back to the roughly 4,000 other gently used dresses donated by community members ranging from a sequin-studded, full-length purple gown to an understated black velvet V-neck number.
There was lots of smiling and hugging.
One girl showed up with curlers in her hair. Her prom was Saturday night, and she needed a dress to go with her new ‘do.
Arthur Anton Jr., the founder of “Belle of the Ball” and chief operating officer of Anton’s Cleaners, said he always thought he understood that prom was important. But then his daughter went through it, “and then I knew how important it was,” Anton said by phone from the event.
As Anton spoke, he and Eliot Tatelman, the president and chief executive of Jordan’s Furniture, were in the middle of helping girls find shoes, while Tatelman’s wife was busy as a personal shopper.
“When I witness what these these young ladies are experiencing here, you know, it makes your heart feel good and burst with joy of being able to give something to somebody who couldn’t have been able to do it on their own,” said Anton.
With the cost of attire, transportation, food, tickets, pictures, flowers, and the after party, it costs almost a grand () per student, for the night, a showed. For the “promposal” alone, or the marriage proposal-like show of asking out your date, you could expect to spend $324 in 2015.
Anton recalled that a year or so ago, “a mother was here with two daughters. And one has junior prom [and the other has] senior prom. She just started crying because she said, ‘I couldn’t have afforded this.’”
She was a single mother, he said. “Then the girls started crying. I started crying. It was one of those days,” said Anton.
The program has dressed more than 6,000 girls since its inception, in what organizers described as one of New England’s largest prom dress drives.
Anton’s Cleaner’s dry cleans gently used donated prom dresses, which are collected at their partners Jordan’s Furniture, Enterprise Bank, and at Anton’s Cleaners’ roughly 70 locations.
After Anton ended the interview, there was still a line of girls waiting to find their dresses.
“Our mission is any girl who needs a prom dress will have one, so we’re going to be here until the last girl gets her dress,” said Julie Dennehy, a spokesperson for the event.
Kajsa Kedefors can be reached at .