New Sumner County group seeks to help teenage girls shop for affordable prom dresses
by Amber Schmitz, Sumner Newscow — What started as a question on Facebook’s Sumner County Buy/Sell/Trade page about a venue for girls to purchase affordable Prom dresses, turned into a group with a mission to help teenage girls shop for Prom dresses safely, with an affordable price.
“There were a lot of people joining in the conversation,” said Wes Smith, who helped organize the event. “It seemed there was enough interest, so I created a Facebook page for it to get rolling.”
Seeing the post, numerous individuals became interested in helping.
“Dena Martens, who owns Wheatland Services, volunteered printing,” Smith said. “Michelle Crittenden volunteered her dance studio as our place to do this.”
Smith said that the group of volunteers wanted a safe way for girls to sell and purchase prom dresses.
“Our idea is to help Sumner County schools with their Proms, Project Proms and After Proms,” Smith said.
Prom dresses can be donated or individuals can sell on consignment. Those wishing to sell on consignment must agree to certain terms, such as a 10 percent sellers fee, which will be donated to the individual’s school for their Prom.
“The way this is done, is if you provide a dress for sale and you want $100 for it, 10 percent of the sale goes to the seller’s school for Prom,” Smith said. “So, you get $90 and your school gets $10.”
A VIP shopping event will be held Friday, Mar. 4 at Michelle’s Encore Dance Studio, for those who purchase tickets.
“We understand that many ladies want to go to the first day to get choice, so we are selling tickets at $10 each for the ladies to come that day,” Smith said. “The $10 goes to the ticket buyer’s local school for Prom.”
Those who don’t purchase tickets will still get a chance to purchase a dress. Open shop/sale day will be held Mar. 5 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and the last chance to shop sale will be Mar. 6 from 1-5 p.m.
The group is opening this event to all of Sumner County, hoping that other schools like Argonia, South Haven, Oxford, Conway Springs, Belle Plaine and Caldwell, etc., would like to participate.
“We hope this can turn into an annual event,” Smith said.
For more information, log onto their Facebook page here.
