SAP gives students a variety of prom dresses for no cost
Prom dresses were displayed in front of the SAP room, across from the office. Photo by: Lourdes Almalab
May 9, 2023
The SAP closed out its prom dress drive
The VHS SAP’s goal is to allow students to feel heard and accepted and is led by counselor Sheri Werner. The SAP room provides a place for students to relax when school or home gets overwhelming.
Recently, the SAP has created a prom dress drive. The drive started on April 24 and continued till May 5 during lunch only. The SAP displayed the clothing racks initially inside the SAP room with tons of prom dresses for students to choose from for the upcoming prom on May 13. For the final week of the dress drive, the SAP room placed the dresses outside and were able to clear half of the dresses just by having them visible.
The idea for the dress drive started because it happened at FTHS, and the SAP room was immediately on board with the idea. Werner said, “We didn’t put it out there right away that we were doing it but we kind of talked about it and told some staff so it kind of just blossomed from there. People started getting on board and we just put word out that we were collecting prom dresses and putting some stuff on Facebook as well as telling some personal friends and the teachers, so people have just been bringing stuff in all year to the point where I had like a whole room full of dresses.”
Bella Long ‘24 said, “I think it’s beneficial for students that don’t have the opportunity to buy a dress or go and get one. I would use it if I was going to prom.”
The SAP began the dress drive to assure students that the SAP cares about them more than at an academic level. Werner said, “We understand that there are families that have financial hardships and kids that really want to go to prom but don’t really have a dress and might be embarrassed to say that they need one. So they either don’t want to go to the prom or they have to figure out how to get the money to get the prom dress because they can be pretty expensive.”
The prom dress drive will be continued at VHS next year. Werner said, “Next year we are going to have a wellness center here at VHS so I think we are going to hand it off to them but it will definitely continue next year.”
