As prom season approaches, many students begin searching for the perfect outfit. However, the cost of formal wear can make attending these events difficult for some families. Abby’s Closet, an Oregon nonprofit organization, works to remove that barrier by providing free formalwear to students across the state.
“It’s a great organization, and they’re really dedicated to the community and their mission statement,” said senior Samantha Wong.
The organization hosts annual dress giveaways where students can receive prom dresses and other formal items at no cost, but this means they are only open a handful of days a year. For prom, the dress giveaway already happened this year.
“I went this year for prom and last year for prom as well,” said Wong. “I liked that there were so many options for stuff.”
The organization is run by adults, but they have students help them.
“[The Student Advisory Board is] a group of a bunch of girls from different schools,” said sophomore Bailey Tieu, a member of the Student Advisory Board. “We give the youth input because everyone on the board is an adult, and they want to know what high-school-aged students want. So we talk and help organize.”
Members of the advisory board began meeting during the summer to discuss ideas and help plan events such as homecoming and prom dress giveaways.
“They give away all sorts of types of dresses like prom dresses, short dresses and homecoming dresses,” said sophomore Abby Lawer, another member of the Student Advisory Board.
The organization also runs fundraisers and uses social media to promote the giveaways and encourage students to attend.
“We’ll [also] take shoes, nice accessories, two-piece sets or fancy-like business wear because [we] know some people don’t want to wear a dress,” said Tieu.
Abby’s Closet only allows people to take one dress when there, with an additional accessory if wanted.
“We donated about 3,500 dresses in total, which includes the annual prom dress giveaway, hoco giveaway and through our Sharing The Love programs,” said Tieu.
Most people can give away their acceptable things to set locations, which can be found on their website, or to members of the organization.
“Next year, we want to do a dress drive here at Lakeridge,” said Tieu. “Then we can get really nice and high-quality dresses that someone else can wear.”
To join the organization, people have to apply in the spring on the organization’s website and go through interviews.
