It takes a village to pick a prom dress.
At least that was the case for some Indian Prairie District 204 high school juniors and seniors, who found the support they needed and the perfect dress at Valley Runway Friday.
Metea Valley reading specialist Ann Cluxton conceived the idea for Valley Runway – a project that collects new and gently used prom dresses for students whose families might not be able to afford the expense of new ones – as she and Metea Valley Dean of Students Jennifer Rowe were driving home last year from a trip to Elgin’s Cinderella’s Closet to help nine girls get dresses.
With about 9,200 high school students in the district, Cluxton thought the community could pull together at least 100 dresses to stock its own dress shop. With the help of parent teacher student associations at Metea Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley high schools, Cluxton collected more than five times that number.
“I’m so grateful to be in a community that supports this,” Cluxton said. “Everyone should have this rite of passage.”
Cluxton and Rowe sorted the nearly 600 dresses by size and color and set up shop at Graham Elementary School in Naperville. On Friday and Saturday, students were invited to browse the dresses and try them on in private dressing rooms.
More than 50 high school girls had hour-long appointments spread out over the two days, and words of encouragement and praise could be heard in the room as district staff and students’ mothers helped them find the perfect dress Friday morning.
“This one made her cry,” said Julia Boldt, a Metea Valley senior after she came out of the dressing room wearing a light blue dress and pointing to her mother, Judy Boldt. “And I don’t want to take it off. That’s how I know it’s the one.”
Judy Boldt wiped her eyes as other people agreed the light blue dress was “the one” for Julia.
“As soon as she stepped into the dress and zipped it up … I can’t even describe the feeling,” Judy Boldt said. “To see her in a dress like that, it brought me back to when she used to play dress up.”
Angelique Herrera, a Metea Valley senior, tried on several dresses with the help of her mother, and district staff too. “I just kept going back to the first dress I tried on,” Angelique said. “This opportunity has been very eye-opening and the school has given me so many opportunities to better myself. I am so thankful.”
Julia and Angelique each waited outside of her own dressing room to see how the other looked in the several dresses that were tried on. As the morning wore one, students left the school with their prom dresses in zippered garment bags and smiles on their faces.
“It’s a pretty awesome feeling to see the girls leaving with dresses,” Rowe said.
There was also a selection of shoes for students to pair with their gowns. A grant from the Indian Prairie Educational Foundation paid for the dress racks and materials used to build the private changing rooms. And project organizers used a donation from Naperville Rotary to buy new dresses in smaller and larger hard-to-find sizes.
“It’s kind of been our passion to take care of kids and make sure they have everything everyone else has,” Cluxton said about an hour into the event Friday. At that point, five girls had each found her perfect dress with the help of their mothers, Cluxton, Rowe and the other staff members.
Having that support and encouragement from the school’s staff was helpful in choosing the right dress, Julia said. “It’s very nice to have all these fairy godmothers,” Julia said. “It’s nice to have their honest opinions and not just the opinions of your friends.”
