On Saturday, March 16, the Dress Up 203 Initiative hosted its first boutique at Naperville North with the goal to help girls shine regardless of their financial situation.
The focus of the initiative is to help girls get a prom dress who may not be able to afford one. It was made possible by seven mothers of District 203 students coming together to get things going.
“So in May, I reached out to my six amazing friends and asked if they would join the group with me, and together we officially started Dress Up 203, said Executive Director Susan Swanson. We believe all students should have the opportunity to attend their prom in style and feel confident.”
Over 460 prom dresses donated to Naperville’s Dress Up 203
This year, Dress Up 203 received 460 dresses donated and also raised over $79,000 in dress donations. It resulted in 33 high school girls receiving prom dresses just in time for the big dance.
“I think there’s nothing better than putting a smile on a students face that might not be able to have the means to be able to get a dress. And we believe that prom is a very important day for many students and we want everyone to be able to attend prom and to end their school year with a bang.” said Swanson
The perfect fit
With a prom dress often comes the need for alterations but the Dress Up 203 team thought of that too.
“So we were blessed to have four different people from the community, a teacher from Naperville Central and from Hurrah (happy upbeat retirees residents actively helping volunteer group) that will be doing alterations in a private room. They’re bringing their sewing machines in. They’re going to be ready to alter any dress to make it a perfect fit for the perfect prom dress for our special students. We are willing to do everything we can to continue to make this a success each year and make sure we reach all the kids that ever need a prom dress and nobody would ever say that they couldn’t go to prom because they didn’t have their means,” said Swanson.
More information on future events from Dress Up 203 can be found on their Instagram and Facebook pages.
For Naperville News 17, I’m Matt Lauterbach.
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