The Princess Closet is looking a little bare this year, as organizers only have received four new prom dresses.
“We are still in need of dress donations and have not received very many to date,” Newton High School teacher Lisa Yoder said. “The event will be held on March 13 at the outlet mall again, so we only have about a month left to collect the donations.”
By this same time last year, organizers already had piles of dresses.
Princess Closet allows girls to get slightly used prom dresses at little or no cost.
Yoder’s marketing and DECA students are in charge of Princess Closet again this year. The Closet isn’t without hope, however. Princess Closet has some leftover dresses from last year, and a sorority at The University of Kansas is planning to donate 20 dresses this year, Yoder said.
The Princess Closet event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 13 at the Chisholm Trail Center-Outlet and Retail Shops in Newton. There, girls will be able to try on dresses and get them for free,0 or, sometimes, girls give a small donation.
Marketing students are executing the promotion end of Princess Closet, while DECA Club members are in charge of setup and cleanup as a service project. The high school’s Family Career and Community Leaders of America organization will do dress alterations.
In addition, students have created a Princess Closet Facebook page.
As part of promoting the event, various male teachers will wear dresses during a runway show in March — if students donate 25 dresses.
“It’ll be funny to see the people that are in (the show),” Yoder said.
They include Brent Glann, Justin Helmer, Mark George, Tad Remsberg, Justin Raybern and Heath Elliott. To promote this, students have created a poster with photos of the teachers’ heads attached to women’s bodies dressed in formalwear.
Princess Closet seeks prom dresses that have been purchased in the last few years. In other words, they want dresses that are in style. Dresses may be dropped off at Katherine’s, 615 N. Main St. in Newton, or at the Newton High School front office through March 5.
Yoder said last year, about 150 to 200 girls attended Princess Closet in hopes of getting their dream dresses, and about 50 girls were able to get dresses.
