May 4, 2005

Donations make spring prom possible

STEP still accepting dresses, shoes, salon and other services for high school students

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       The expenses of prom can be prohibitive for some area high school students, when the $25 per person cost of a ticket is just the beginning.
      Then there's a dress at $60-200, tux rental of around $90, not to mention shoes, hair, make up, nails, flowers and a corsage. Oh, and a nice dinner for two - tack on another $50 or so to the total.
      To help defray the expenses for homeless students, students at risk and students with little money, the Students in Transition Empowerment Program (STEP) and Traverse City High School again accepting donations of dresses, shoes, accessories, salon services and cash. This is the second year of the effort to help low-income students with prom expenses.
      "The community has been really great for dresses and cash donated to help offset other costs that kids would incur with prom," said Randy Ward, director of the STEP program. "We take pretty seriously the way the community responds to us and thus we are pretty serious that it goes to the kids most in need."
      "I think we'll serve between 50-100 kids, both boys and girls, in some way shape or form this year," he added.
      Students at Traverse City High School attend West High School's prom every year, with 85 students going last year. Last year, staff and teachers at Traverse City High School hosted a dinner for prom-bound students in the school cafeteria. A parent helped decorate and everyone involved worked to create a memorable evening for the students. Volunteer servers also included members of the Traverse City Area Public Schools administration.
      "As a staff member, it was really neat to have the kids here with us because we don't have the resources to have a prom for the school," said Nancy Brown, a social worker for the school. "We had most of the staff here and it was fun, I'm really looking forward to it."
      This year the students will again be feted, with generous donations of food from the Great Wolf Lodge, Holiday Inn and Sara Lee providing dinner and dessert before the dance, which will be held at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa.
      "It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it a lot," said Cheri, a senior at Traverse City High School of the pre-prom dinner at the school last year. "I didn't have a date to take me to dinner so I came here with a friend, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford it."
      Community volunteers also came to Traverse City High School the day of the prom to help the girls with hair and make up. In addition, the dresses and cash donations made to the STEP program helped those in need find a gown or rent a tux.
      "A lot of kids don't have the money to blow," said Dave, a senior at the school. "As long as you want to go, the school takes care of you."
      The prom project began last year when some female students approached Marco Dedenbach, community living center coordinator at Traverse City High School, with an idea to swap formal dresses around. Dedenbach sent word to students and staff, asking them to bring in any formal dresses they wanted to get rid of. He also told Jean Peltola, former coordinator of the STEP program, about the idea and she initiated a dress drive from Zonta.
      "The next thing we knew we had a couple hundred phone calls and people had donated hair styling and helped with food," Dedenbach said. "We kind of rode that snowball down the hill."
      "We had enough cash donations we were able to help the young men rent tuxes," he added. "To see these young men who've never been fitted for anything in their lives, to have them step up and try on different jackets and be fitted, it's fun to see."
      For more information or to make a contribution, contact Randy Ward at the STEP program, 933-8991, or Marco Dedenbach at Traverse City High School, 933-5883.