Project Prom is a nonprofit organization with the goal of providing prom attire, free of charge, to students who are not able to afford it. The store space is donated in the Centerra shopping center once a year nearing prom specially for this store.
Tracy Roller is the director of Project Prom, drawing the idea from Bella Boutique, a similar concept store in Denver.
“I got the idea for it from seeing articles and watching on the news and people doing this same thing in Denver. I saw it year after year and I [thought] that’s a great idea, someone should really do that up here… eventually I got to thinking that I guess I could do that,” Roller says.
Entering the store, each student is required to show a valid school ID, as well as fill out a waiver to ensure each student receives only one outfit.
“Yeah, just limit it to one outfit, per person. And that way, we have plenty of dresses for everybody,” Roller mentions.
Donations are held at nearby shops such as Sephora, Ace, Barnes and Noble, and other surrounding businesses. People are able to drop off their dresses, suits, jewelry, shoes, etc. at those places, where they will be picked up and held until the store opens again.
“Every single dress is donated, every shoe, every earring, everything. The community just steps up every year and they just swamp us with dresses,” Roller says emotionally.
Project Prom is entirely run by volunteers. A call is typically put out in advance for people to sign up, however, this year, there was no need due to all the volunteers from past years reaching out to help.
“It was always fun to be able to help support her on her journey to develop Project Prom and see what it’s turned into,” says Natalie Denkers, volunteer and longtime friend of Roller..
The store originally started in the Thompson School District, but in recent years, the need has been made clear and the store opened up to other school districts around Colorado with the chance of growth beyond that.
“I can tell that this is definitely going to keep growing, word is getting out there. It’s wonderful. People are excited to donate as well, so it’s really bringing the whole community together,” Denkers says.
Project Prom has certainly helped a lot of families by relieving the financial stress of the prom season.
“I love the idea. They don’t ask if you are below the poverty line or not, they simply ask for a high school ID and let you pick out an outfit. It’s a brilliant idea and I can’t wait to give back to it,” high school student Ava Thomas says.
