The fairy tale became a reality for many local teens who visited Assistance League of Bend’s Cinderella’s Closet in anticipation of their high school proms.\u00a0 The girls were able to select a dress, shoes, and jewelry to borrow for their special night.\u00a0 Thanks to a\u00a0 tremendous response from the community the students had over 700 gowns to choose from and a large assortment of\u00a0 fashionable accessories as well.\u00a0 It was wonderful to see the beautiful smiles and know these girls did not have to miss out on\u00a0 this quintessential high school experience simply because they could not afford a dress.<\/p>\n
Read more about Cinderella’s Closet in the Bend Bulletin article below:<\/p>\n
Hundreds of Central Oregon teens are in the midst of preparing for their prom nights. The date. The dress. The ask. The evening brings careful planning of a ride, dinner reservations and the perfect attire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that prom is kind of something a lot of kids romanticize about when they\u2019re young,\u201d said Carley Epple, a senior at Summit High School in Bend.<\/p>\n
Teen girls are excited for the opportunity to dress in a formal gown accented by bedazzled shoes or 6-inch heels. The day of the dance is filled with primping \u2014 hair, make-up and nails.<\/p>\n
The price tag for prom can quickly add up. Tickets, a dress and a trip to the salon can reach hundreds of dollars. For many families, that\u2019s not affordable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019re a guy or girl, once you\u2019ve got what you\u2019re wearing on top of tickets and dinner and a corsage, all that stuff can be expensive,\u201d Epple said. \u201cI think this is a really good way to get people more involved and not feel like, well, I don\u2019t want to spend the money or I don\u2019t have the money to spend.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an effort to help more teen girls experience prom, nonprofit organizations nationwide have created programs to provide trendy dresses and accessories to wear to the formal event. One such program in Central Oregon is Cinderella\u2019s Closet, a project of Assistance League of Bend in its first year. The nonprofit is providing in-need girls with fashionable dresses, shoes and accessories free of charge for one week to wear to the prom. The Assistance League not only understands the financial constraints of going to prom, but also the need for the dress and its accouterments to match the current fashions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a coming-out for them,\u201d said Peggy Cook, co-chairwoman of Cinderella\u2019s Closet and a volunteer with Assistance League of Bend. \u201cWhen you\u2019re dressed well and look good, you feel good about yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
All dolled up<\/strong><\/p>\n Assistance League of Bend has been collecting prom dresses, shoes and accessories during the past month.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we can all relate to proms, and when we were young girls and how important it was not to miss your special day just because you don\u2019t have a dress that you like,\u201d said Patti Stewart, the chairwoman for the philanthropic programs for Assistance League of Bend. \u201cAnd it has to be one that you feel special in.\u201d<\/p>\n The closet is now filled with at least 300 dresses for young women to try on and borrow for the special occasion. Many of the dresses have been donated by families with daughters who attended prom in recent years and are unlikely to wear the dress again.<\/p>\n Others are brand-new dresses that were purchased by community members.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you know, that lady that I just picked up dresses from, she purchased five brand-new dresses at Macy\u2019s because she missed her prom, and she didn\u2019t want five girls here missing their prom,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n Teens in Bend-La Pine and Redmond school districts are eligible to borrow a dress. Arrangements can be made directly with Cinderella\u2019s Closet or through a girl\u2019s high school.<\/p>\n They can keep the dress for one week before returning it to Assistance League of Bend.<\/p>\n Cathy\u2019s Cleaners has volunteered to dry clean all of the dresses afterward so they can be reused the following year.<\/p>\n A vogue affair<\/strong><\/p>\n Prom dress styles change every year depending on the latest trends, but a classic, strapless gown is timeless.<\/p>\n Beaded navy gowns, short cherry red dresses and fitted patterned dresses fill the juniors section in Macy\u2019s department store in Bend.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know you\u2019ll always have that handful of people that want a short dress and then you\u2019ll always have the seniors that want to wear a long, formal dress,\u201d said \u00adKathleen Evans, owner of Bend Wedding and Formal.<\/p>\n The biggest trends Evans has seen this season are the illusion high neckline and dresses with rhinestones or beading around the bodice.<\/p>\n Prom preparations<\/strong><\/p>\n Walking into Cinderella\u2019s Closet feels like a scene out of \u201cThe Princess Diaries\u201d or \u201cThe Devil Wears Prada.\u201d The large, newly renovated closet is filled with dresses of different lengths in shades of blue, pink, green and black. Some are beaded, some have vibrant patterns and others are simple and classic.<\/p>\n The adjacent wall is filled with shoes, flats and high heels in a variety of colors.<\/p>\n Next in line is the jewelry. There are dozens of earrings, bracelet and necklace pairings to choose from, some of which look like vintage pieces. Colors, styles and sizes of the dresses vary drastically, and it\u2019s likely any girl could find one that fits her personality and style.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s probably one of the most favorite parts aside from the actual dance,\u201d Epple said. \u201cLooking for a dress and getting ready is part of the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Assistance League of Bend is also planning to have beauty school students attend pre-prom preparations to offer free hair and makeup services to girls. The volunteers are working hard to make the night magical for all Central Oregon young women.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Cinderella\u2019 and \u2018Beauty and the Beast,\u2019 these gals have grown up with that,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cWe all have the fairytale ending that\u2019s somewhere in us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Reporter: 541-383-0351, mcrowe@bendbulletin.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fairy tale became a reality for many local teens who visited Assistance League of Bend’s Cinderella’s Closet in anticipation of their high school proms.\u00a0 The girls were able to select a dress, shoes, and jewelry to borrow for their special night.\u00a0 Thanks to a\u00a0 tremendous response from the community the students had over 700 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20178,"featured_media":4692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4419,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions\/4419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.assistanceleague.org\/bend\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}