By Raylene Quaney

This was the sixth year for the Help House Prom Shop, the most successful to date with the large donation from the Green Prom Movement, a non-profit run by Marc and Melissa Roberts, of Vassar, Kan. Plus, many dresses were donated throughout the year by others in our communities. These were some of some of the most beautiful gowns we have ever had.

This year we gave out 132 dresses, a record number of prom dresses, with close to 450 people through the doors, parents, grandparents, and friends came to help the girls find just the right dress.

I would like to thank the Help House Board of Directors for allowing us to continue to offer this opportunity to the girls in Osage County; also thank you to USD 454 for allowing us to set up shop in their facility and “take it over” for over a week, the gentlemen that had to work around the racks of dresses during that time, and Chris Burk and Mike Barlow and their assistance for getting the building ready. We would like to thank Jaryl and Stephanie Seth for loaning us the display racks for dresses.

And thanks to the volunteers who worked endless hours sorting and hanging and steam pressing all of the dresses and then working each day to assist these shoppers in finding their special dress. We feel so blessed to have been apart of this, watching their smiles and sometimes tears. The special thanks we received from everyone was so special. This endeavor took several hours and days of work from a small army of volunteers to make it such a success. The volunteers were Corinne Dubois, Donna Young, Jan Newman, Carol Grady, Lee Ann Smiley, Connie Bonczkowski, Cindy Ledgard, Tammi Brabb, Nancy Alley, Ann Hladky, Sheila Curtis, and Jaclynn Ruth.

Each girl who found a dress was eligible to register for a $25 Visa gift card. The winner was Alexis Kelly, who attends Santa Fe Trail High School. Congratulations to you.