Operation Prom gives low-income teens a chance to experience a memorable night

By Anna Real
Staff Writer

Everyone deserves the chance to have a night they will always remember.

Mira Costa began helping the charity Operation Prom on May 2, by collecting prom dresses for girls who can not afford them all over the country. Donation boxes were in the front office and rooms 40 and 41.

“It was an organization that I had heard about and I mentioned it to my co-commissioner,” senior Associated Student Body student Grace Greenspon said. “We thought, what better place to do something like this than our own school?”

Operation Prom is a New York based non-profit organization founded in 2005 by Noel D’Allacco.. The organization helps people who do not have the resources to purchase prom dresses. The charity began with free prom dresses and has since expanded to giving free tuxedo rentals, as well as donating school supplies and funding for schools.

“Noel D’Allacco had the idea to start this organization,” official Californian chapter director Catherine Desiderio-Cole said. “It started with her donating dresses to her local high school in New York, and her idea blew up into a big organization.”

The organization takes in dresses year round, and receives 1000s of donations per year. The charity is divided into chapters based on regions in the United States. Girls get to keep the dresses the organization donates to them.

“It’s a really personal organization for me,” Greenspon said. “Clothing and fashion have been a big part of my life, and I’ve taken design classes. I plan to major in fashion merchandising next year.”

In order to receive a free dress or tuxedo rental, students must be passing all their classes, have severe financial needs and be a senior in high school. The organization focuses on students who are homeless, live in shelters or are sick.

“I always had an obsession with prom dresses,” Desiderio-Cole said.“My mother and I would buy prom dresses off season for like $30, and I would let my friends borrow them and it felt so nice to do that for someone. When I moved, I was looking for something to do and found Operation Prom.”

Donations are done anonymously, and the dresses will be sent off to one of the Operation Prom locations once collections stop. From there, the dresses will be available for students to apply for and receive them.

“I think that this project is really awesome, because I personally really love dances and formal events,” junior and ASB participant Allison Arvin said. “I think its really important to give girls who aren’t as privileged a chance to dress up, look elegant and have a good time in dresses that we probably won’t wear again.”

Grace Greenspon and ASB hope that Operation Prom drives will continue next year at Costa, but this mostly depends on how successful it proves to be this year.

“I think Costa is a good school for it, because all of the girls I know have dresses that fill their closets that they will never wear again,” Arvin said. “I’m guilty of this, and its a good way to clean out your closet while helping out the community.”