Cinderella-style fairy godmother comes to the rescue
Published: May 7, 2008
The prom ticket is $95, his share of the limo will run $40 and then there’s the corsage he’ll buy for his date. But as the mother of a graduating son, I’m getting off easy.
For his girl friends, the dress, shoes, hair and makeup for their Cinderella moment can easily top $600.
High school proms have become ridiculously expensive propositions. There’s the formal itself, the pre-party, the after-party and all the clothes, tickets and transportation that go along. Yet it’s a rite of passage that can’t be missed, the big night that many of these graduating students have anticipated for months.
But what if you can’t afford it all?
What if you’re new to this country and your parents are barely scraping enough together to put dinner on the table — how can you ask for a few hundred dollars to spend on such frivolity as a prom dress? What if you’ve escaped abuse and you’re a ward of the Crown with no parents to splurge on you at the mall?
For many disadvantaged young women in Toronto, the exorbitant costs threaten to ruin their fairytale evening — or prevent them from going at all.
But yesterday their fairy godmother — better known as the Corsage Project — came to their rescue.
In the ninth year of the extraordinary program, 250 high school girls chosen by their teachers, guidance counsellors or Children’s Aid social workers were invited downtown to live every woman’s fantasy.
Paired with one of 260 volunteer personal shoppers, each aspiring prom queen was let loose to select the perfect gown among hundreds of new, stylish dresses donated by some of Toronto’s most fashionable retailers. Then it was on to slip their feet into matching shoes and adorn themselves with co-ordinating jewellery before they were treated to a mini-makeover — all of it for free.
They may have walked into the Boutique Ball nervous and a little embarrassed, but they emerged as confident Cinderellas.
“It’s amazing,” says Sarah Tuite, a volunteer since the Corsage Project began with just 100 graduating students in 1999. “These girls are unbelievable. You meet them, hear their stories. So many of them face adversity every day and still they come in with a smile on their face.”
For Zakiyya Thurston, it was shopping nirvana.
Like many of her classmates, the pretty 18-year-old has been fantasizing about her prom since she was in middle school. “It’s up there with your wedding, definitely. And the dress is the main thing girls think about,” she admits with a smile.
Living in a foster home on government assistance, she tends to shy away from shopping. “I’m more of a saver. I don’t like to frivolously throw away my money. I don’t want to look at something I can’t have.”
But she hoped that when it came time to buy her formal gown, she’d be able to do it on her own. Yet earlier this year, Thurston realized that finding a nice dress on her meagre budget was going to be virtually impossible.
The most expensive dress she’s ever owned is under $100 and she couldn’t imagine finding anything in her price range that would feel comfortable surrounded by the expensive gowns of her peers. “Some girls I know will be pretty extravagant. I know one girl got a dress for $600.”
Nobody wants to look like a charity case. When her worker first told her about the Corsage Project, Thurston worried that the dresses would be second-hand castoffs.
When she was assured that all are not only new but fashionable she was thrilled to be invited.
“I’m so excited,” she said a few days before the event. “I’ll feel amazing having a dress like that. It sounds shallow, but people like having nicer things.”
When her friends kept asking why she didn’t have her dress yet, she was initially embarrassed to tell them about the project.
“I don’t go around broadcasting my situation,” she says thoughtfully. “But I can’t afford a dress otherwise so I don’t feel bad. I feel thankful that I’m being invited to this event.”
The aspiring theatre student had visions of finding a pouffy cocktail dress that would channel Madonna on the cover of her Like a Virgin album cover.
“I want to feel like I’m already a famous actress. Not ridiculously bratty, but feel like I can afford to be special.”
By the end of the morning she instead found a stunning silver, pencil-slim dress.
“It’s a style I thought I couldn’t pull off but evidently I can,” she said laughing yesterday, while her seamstress and personal shopper hovered approvingly around her. “I feel awesome. Everybody is telling me I look hot.
“I’m so happy. It’s better than I ever imagined. It’s definitely a dream come true.”
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