Cinderellas for a day Program at Muhlenberg College provides formalwear to underprivileged girls.
For most of the day Saturday, the Miller Forum at Muhlenberg College was converted into a high-end boutique for teenage girls. There were racks of formal and semi-formal dresses, and tables covered with shoes, purses, jewelry and other accessories.Tuesday, November 12, 2013 00:56 PM
For most of the day Saturday, the Miller Forum at Muhlenberg College was converted into a high-end boutique for teenage girls.
There were racks of formal and semi-formal dresses, and tables covered with shoes, purses, jewelry and other accessories.
While a disc jockey spun mellow rhythm & blues and still pictures of smiling, formally dressed women were projected onto large screens, girls paraded in and out of makeshift dressing rooms to check themselves out in front of a three-sided mirror.
Beverages, hors d'oeuvres and Christmas cookies awaited the shoppers, who could not have asked for a better price for the hospitality and new prom dress: Free.
The invitation-only event for underprivileged girls from the Allentown area was put together by four Muhlenberg College juniors — Rachel Feinberg, Dee Ross, Betsy Stoller and Adrienne Verbich — who started planning the event in September, collecting more than 250 barely used dresses and accessories from classmates and teachers.
By the end of the day, 78 of the dresses were picked out. The rest will be donated to charity, Stoller said.
The program, called Glass Slipper, is modeled on The Glass Slipper Project, launched in Chicago in 1999. Since then, dozens of similar programs with names such as the Fairy Godmother Project and Cinderella's Closet have been started in cities across the country.
The Muhlenberg classmates reached out to the Allentown School District and organizations such as Casa Guadalupe, the Girl Scouts and the YMCA to find would-be princesses who might otherwise have trouble affording a dress for their prom, holiday dance or another occasion that might demand formal or semi-formal attire.
They raised money among their peers and sought sponsorships from local businesses to pay for some of the expenses, such as renting dress racks and buying a steamer to get out the wrinkles.
They also sought to add little touches — music, food, a feather pen to fill out raffle tickets. The free raffle enabled some of the girls to win trips to a hair salon, a package of hair care products, a trip to Outback Steakhouse or other prizes.
''We tried to make it very welcoming and comfortable,'' said Ross, an economics and business marketing major from Eatontown, N.J. ''We're trying to get the girls psyched for their prom.''
The approach seemed to work.
Noelia Cardona, an eighth-grader at Harrison Morton Middle School in Allentown, was beaming as she tried on dresses until she left. Her eighth- grade prom, which will come at the end of the school year, will be her first and the pink dress she picked is her first formal gown.
Among the happiest and proudest was Muhlenberg College President Randy Helm, who stopped by Miller Forum, inside Moyer Hall, for a visit.
''Dee ran the voter registration drive and she's on the dean's list,'' Helm said. ''I really don't know if she sleeps at all and she beat me at Scrabble last spring.''
Eighty percent of all Muhlenberg students are engaged in some type of community volunteer activity, Helm said.
''I am just over-the-moon about it,'' Helm said. ''The students of Muhlenberg are deeply engaged in helping their neighbors. I couldn't be prouder of them.''
