‘Cinderella Project’ designed to ease financial burden of proms

With the costs associated with graduation balls skyrocketing, one Vincentian has come up with an initiative to ease some of the burden on parents.

Carleen Heather Marshall told SEARCHLIGHT the Cinderella Project was designed to help girls whose parents may find the cost associated with getting a prom dress exorbitant.

She explained that she knows of students who choose not to attend their proms because they are aware that their parents might not be able to afford to buy a dress for them.

“The idea is to get a recycling programme where persons who are willing to part with their dresses donate them and we give them out to persons interested in taking up the offer.”

Marshall said many persons wear their graduation dress once and never again.

According to Marshall, who is a senior civil servant and the co-ordinator of the Chauncey Methodist youth fellowship, the response has been “great” and the support “overwhelming”.

She thanked her friends Erter Browne and Joanne Soleyn who pushed the project in New York and set up sites where donors could drop off dresses.

Already, two boxes of donated prom dresses have been received from New York, but Marshall said they have had to create a cut off date for donations from New York because of the cost associated with shipping the dresses.

“We are going to stop after this next batch which we should receive maybe Wednesday. So after that I don’t think we would be taking anymore from New York for this year,” Marshall said.

However, she said they would be ready to receive more donations next year or later this year.

She said that to offset some of the costs associated with the project, girls will be asked to pay a service fee of $25, however those who are unable to afford the service charge will still be able to receive dresses.

Persons who wish to receive dresses or make a donation to the Cinderella project may contact Marshall on her Facebook page at Carleen Heather Marshall, or by sending a message to the organization’s Facebook page Cinderella project SVG, or to Jo Thompson, Semonique Harry or Hope Richardson on Facebook. Recipients may view and pick up dresses at the old Intermediate High School site at Upper Middle Street from Mondays to Thursdays from 3:30 pm to 5:30 p.m and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.