Dressing a dream

• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Apr 24, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:40 a.m.

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Could a garage sale bring out hundreds of high school girls searching for designer prom dresses?

Not likely.

Yet, Cinderella Project of Baton Rouge founders Sarah Dupree and Shelton Jones figured out a way to pull the idea off.

A one-day-only charitable garage event on Saturday featured 700 of the latest prom dress styles.

Charity? Yes. Cheap dresses? No.

A red-carpeted entranceway  led 400 hundred  girls into a pay-nothing prom boutique housed inside a reception hall at Living Faith Christian Center on Winbourne Avenue and filled with dozens of racks of satin, chiffon, taffeta and glittery dresses.

The Cinderella Project of Baton Rouge made dreams come true for girls from 14 area public high schools who chose fashionable prom styles and colors from sizes 2 up to 24.

Girls lined up as early as 7:30 a.m. to make their shopping appointments and they continued through 5:30 p.m. “Most of them brought their moms and even their grandmoms. One of the highlights of the event was seeing the girls interact with their moms as they shopped...and deliberated…and pondered choices,” Jones said.

As a bonus, the girls also received Macy’s gift bags packed with jewelry, makeup and perfume samples and cosmetic pouches, Jones said.

 “Wow,” recalled Beryln Stewart, 17, an Istrouma High School student who will attend her prom on May 3. “There were so many dresses and when I saw it (my dress), I knew it was the one.”

Stewart selected a pale green, Cinderella-style ball gown covered in diamond-like jewels. “I felt like I was in a dress shop. We were treated like royalty,” she said.

Jones and Dupree formed the program earlier this year in an effort to provide free prom dresses to girls who might not be able to afford them.

Cinderella Project of Baton Rouge is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization. It is based on similar models in other parts of the country that provide free prom dresses for teenagers. The project’s focus this year was to provide 250 Istrouma High School girls with prom wear.  Many of the students there are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.