Las Vegas Prom Closet helps bejewel teenagers in need for big dance

View File photoShaquau Jackson looks for the perfect dress last year at the Prom Closet at the Agassi Boys and Girls Club. Advertisement

Since 2003, it has been the mission of Las Vegas Prom Closet to provide Las Vegas Valley teens with the opportunity to dress for prom success. The nonprofit organization donates gently used dresses and accessories -- including vouchers for tuxedo rental -- to local teens who otherwise may have been unable to dress the part.

Las Vegas Prom Closet volunteer Jennifer Lewis has passed out gowns to local prom-going teens for the past four years. The nonprofit bedecked and bejeweled as many as 200 recipients last year, Lewis said.

"We get a good combination of individual donations -- people donating bridesmaids' and formal gowns," Lewis said. "Donations also come in from the Strip and organizations from the hotels. The Paris, the Rio and Caesars Palace have all organized dress drives for us. It's pretty amazing."

Staffed and run by a core group of 15 volunteers, the Las Vegas Prom Closet will distribute dresses and accessories from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and April 12 at the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club at 800 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., where the organization is based.

Lewis said donations can run the gamut, from cocktail-style to designer glam.

"We've had people donate dresses with the tags still on them from Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman's," said Lewis.

This year's donations were supplemented by a January event sponsored by Town Square mall, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. South, as its Rave Motion Pictures Theaters celebrated the opening of the film "27 Dresses," with an Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride dress drive.

In addition, noted celebrity shop Jessica McClintock at Fashion Show mall was accepting gently used dresses for donation to the Prom Closet and granting donors a 15 percent discount on new dress purchases.

"These aren't second class-type gowns," said Musiette McKinney of UNLV's Educational Talent Search program.

McKinney ferried 85 young women, 12 at a time via two vans, to get them to the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club for the Las Vegas Prom Closet's distribution event last year.

"If you see their faces on the day of the event," said McKinney, "their faces tell the tale. They are so appreciative."

McKinney said it is not unusual to hear of moms and dads working second and third jobs, "mowing lawns," said McKinney, to provide their students with the extras prom and other extracurricular activities demand.

McKinney, whose work with the Educational Talent Search program is to provide mentoring and support services to middle and high school youth striving to become first-generation college students, said Las Vegas Prom acts as a much needed resource for parents who do not want to see their children left out of the prom experience.

"I tell my students that when they turn out well dressed, they're representing themselves and their parents," McKinney said.

Las Vegas Prom Closet got its start in 2002 in Reno, when Becky Christensen wished to honor the memory of her daughter Aly, who was killed in an auto accident. Aly's Prom Closet then expanded to Southern Nevada in 2003.

The nonprofit organization asks that prom-goers bring in a student I.D. when choosing among donations.

There is one gown or tuxedo voucher per recipient. Students also can receive shoes, costume jewelry and handbags.

The goal of Lewis and McKinney this year is to donate every dress out of the nearly 1,000 they have received thus far.

"We want every young girl who needs a dress to get one," McKinney said.

For more information on Las Vegas Prom Closet, call 237-0363.