Written by Julia Hornyak |

Dress for Less is coming back to Morgan! Girls can sell their old prom dresses to make some quick cash while twenty percent of the profit will go towards the Class of 2017. A similar event occurred in the past sponsored by Interact called Rockin’ the Runway for a Reason. Interact’s (leader Mrs. Gworek) donated the profits to Art from the Heart as well as the Clinton Rotary Cancer Relief Fund.

All prom dresses during this event were modeled by students in the school and showed off all different styles and sizes. When the event started, Asiye’s from Madison, would donate dresses for the girls to model and then the girls could go to the store and get 10% off any of the dresses they liked. The money was raised by selling tickets to see the fashion show as well as from prom-related raffles during the show.

The event then transformed again and now girls started to donate their own dresses which would be worn in the fashion show. The next day, there would be a Dress for Less sale where girls could buy any of the dresses that they saw during the show.  This first Dress for Less sale consisted of lightly worn dresses under $50 that also contributed to the money raised. All proceeds from the event went towards a local version of Extreme Home Makeover to help redo the room of a cancer patient that would be chosen randomly, but this year the guidelines are a bit different. 

Dress for less is now similar to that of a consignment shop. In the past, Consumer Science teacher Joanne Nunan used to run this event until it was passed on to Library Media Specialist Shannon Robinson. In the article from 2013, Shoreline Dress for Less, Mrs. Nunan states how “this may be the last year Morgan does Dress for Less. It takes a lot of effort.” Mrs. Nunan was correct and that was the end due to less and less participation. Many of the dresses were given by donation and did not receive any money in return, but they get the satisfaction of helping a child’s dream come true to redo his or her bedroom.  This year Madison Garbinski built off the general idea so that the proceeds will go to her class as well as the girls who bought the dresses because prom dresses are not cheap.

Although there will be no fashion show this year, there will be a time to shop for the dresses on Friday, March 11th. All dresses will be displayed in the Learning Commons from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm. All dresses will be no more than $250 dollars. If interested buyers would like additional viewing times, they can contact Shannon Robinson at the Morgan School phone number: (860) 664-6504. Any dresses not bought will either be given back to the previous owner, or if they do not want the dresses back, they will be donated to Goodwill. This is a great way to get more uses out of prom dresses because the sad truth is that they are worn once and never again. Make sure to go Friday and check out all the options!