Kiara Daniel, left, and Jasmine Litt, two students from the fashion design program at Puget Sound Skills Center, help organize dresses for the Project Promise drive.
Got a spare prom dress hanging around in your closet? Dust it off and donate it to a high school in the Highline School District.
The Highline Schools Foundation has started a drive called Project Promise, in which formal dresses are being collected to distribute to girls who can't afford a dress for the upcoming prom season.
Last year, the Project Promise drive collected 200 dresses and helped 60 girls get a dress for their prom.
Holly Moore, the executive director of the Highline Schools Foundation, said that this year, they've increased their goal. They hope to collect up to 500 dresses to serve up to 120 women.
"We want to level the playing field," she said. "[The district] has lots of disparities in income and proms are the kind place where students feel left out."
Dress donations are being accepted at any of the high schools in the district, including Puget Sound Skills Center.
Jasmine Litt and Kiara Daniel, 18 and 17 respectively, are two students in the fashion design program at PSSC who have been involved in the prom dress drive for the last month-and-a-half.
They heard about the program through fashion design instructor Jill Price-Crawley. The idea intrigued them and once they had gone to the first meeting to learn more about it, they committed themselves to helping out with the project.
"[We want] to help girls less fortunate go to prom," said Litt, a senior at Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines.
So far, they have collected about 80 dresses. They took it upon themselves to make a meticulously organized, three-inch thick binder that catalogues every dress they've received, with a picture and information on sizes.
The drive will lead up to a fashion show that will happen on Friday, May 7 at the Southcenter Doubletree Hotel. Saturday, May 8, will be the distribution day when students from outside the district can choose which dress they want, with the assistance of a personal shopper and three seamstresses on hand to make alterations.
Project Promise is also seeking out donations of other items and services that are essential to making a girl's prom be successful - shoes, makeup, hair services, limousine services and restaurant dinners. Dry cleaning services are also needed for donated dresses.
Donations can be made at any high school in the district during March.
Those wishing to donate or have questions, contact info@highlineschoolsfoundation.org.
