Salima Scotland
Business Manager

The third annual Prom Dress Drive hosted by Mesa State’s Sociology Club is off to a more than impressive start. Each year, many girls are deprived of this once-in-a-lifetime event due to the financial stress that goes along with prom. This year will be different for some of District 51’s high school female students.
Prom fever is making its way through the Grand Valley one student at a time. Hair, makeup, shoes and accessories are the last thing on any girl’s mind. It is the dress that makes or breaks her evening, however, many girls are struggling to afford the costs of even attending prom.
Every year for the past three years, the Sociology Club has put all of their efforts into collecting as many dresses as possible for their drive. “We are helping the young girls in the community that are unable to go to the prom because they can’t afford a dress,” said Aaron Hawes, member of Sociology Club. He also went on to say that not only does the drive help these girls, it also relieves a lot of stress for the parents who are unable to help their daughters.
This year is very different from previous years. Thanks to a donation by Jennifer Graham, owner of Dottie’s Home Consignment, 140 dresses were given along with shoes and accessories.
“Jennifer really came through for us. Our first collection isn’t until March 2-3. Before her, we had only collected about 16 dresses,” says Alison Deshotels, member of the Sociology Club, “but then we received a call from Jennifer and because of her, we were able to leave all of those dresses at R5 whose prom is in a couple of days.”
With the help of Tree House, a local non-profit organization that provides a place for students to go to after school, the Sociology Club will be distributing all items collected to District 51 high schools. Terri Klements, founder of thProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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the dresses to be dry cleaned and has gone above and beyond to make sure that the students at the high schools know about the drive.
The club will be hosting their first prom dress collection on campus March 2-3 in the Academic Classroom Building. “We know that a lot of girls will be going home for spring break, so we are having another collection March 17-18.”
When asked if this has been the most successful drive, Deshotels showed much excitement. “So far, so good,” she said. “This year, before our first two official collections, we have already collected 140 (dresses).”
Last year they collected about 130-140 dresses. The Sociology Club encourages all MSC students to donate whatever they can.