LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo — Prom season is just around the corner and a church in Lee’s Summit is helping families with the financial burdens that come with significant purchases.
According to Yahoo Style’s 2017 Prom Across America Survey, a teen is spending an average of more than $600 on hair, makeup, outfits, tickets and rides to prom.
For 18 yers, Woods Chapel United Methodist Church has eliminated the cost altogether. Volunteers at the church’s “Prom Boutique” understand it is an important milestone in a young adult’s life and they want to make sure every teen across Kansas City get to experience it.
“You know, they come right after school in their t-shirts and jeans and hoodies on and they’re like, ‘Oh mom made me come,’" Prom Boutique publicity chair Christy Barber said. "Then they put on a dress, they put on a suit and they see themselves in the mirror and all of a sudden they’re a different person."
Teens can walk out of the boutique with a dress, two pieces of jewelry, a pair of shoes and a purse — all free of charge. There are more than 2,500 new or almost-new dresses for them to choose from this year.
“Our biggest number of dresses we’ve given away at any one boutique was 1,600 and it wouldn’t surprise me if we go bigger than that this year,” Barber said.
The volunteers say it is important for them to offer variety so that the girls and boys feel like they had choices.
“This is the first dress I actually tried on and I’m in love with it,” Harrisonville High School senior Shanna Pelsor said.
Pelsor says money has been tight at home, so she is grateful for the chance to even go to prom and have her mom by her side during the shopping experience.
“It’s emotional, but fabulous,” her mom Jennifer Pelsor said. “To not have to worry about the shoes and the accessories and the expense of the dress and having to let her down' I know if I take her out shopping, I might not be able to afford the dress that she wanted."
In partnership with area schools, the “Prom Boutique” had a soft opening on Tuesday just for students who may not have a means of transportation. Seniors Natalie Collins and Amber Taber say it made all the difference.
“I wasn’t going to go to prom. This is the only reason why I’m going to prom really, because we didn’t have enough money,” Taber said.
“I feel grown — I’m doing something for myself,” Collins said.
