Project Prom provides free formal wear for high schoolers
Tracy Roller loved watching the girls sort through the dresses she gathered from friends, collection boxes and even garage sales. But the ones who still make her cry are their parents.
Roller is a parent herself. Her girls both graduated from the Thompson School District in Loveland a couple of years ago. She remembers how prom and the hundreds of dollars they would spend on a dress, shoes and accessories used to dent her family budget. But she could do it. She worried about the kids whose families couldn’t. She was almost one of those kids.
“My mom was on a tight budget,” Roller says. “She had to budget for homecoming and prom. I took it for granted.”
So, in 2020, the year before her oldest daughter graduated, Roller set up a way for students who couldn’t afford a dress to get one. As a volunteer for the Thompson Education Foundation, an organization that supports the school district, she and a core group of other volunteers started the program and called it Project Prom.
The pandemic delayed things, but in 2022, the day they finally opened their little store for the first time inside Loveland Community Yoga, it was warm and gratifying to watch those 35 girls pick from more than 1,000 dresses. The parents, many with tears in their eyes, pulled up beside Roller and whispered to her that their daughter wouldn’t have gone to prom without the foundation’s efforts to give them a free outfit.
Photos by Jordan Secher.
“It was very apparent to us after that first year that not only the need was there, but that we needed to grow,” says Celeste Smith, a board member who now runs Project Prom.
Their wish came true the next year when Centerra offered them a pop-up storefront that allowed them to take all the dresses that came in by the cartload. Project Prom is so big now that anyone from any high school can get an outfit for prom for free. All genders are welcome, and they aren’t asked about income levels.
Kim Akeley-Charron, the foundation’s executive director, confidently calls Project Prom the biggest prom store in the region, with thousands of dresses and suits as well as accessories and shoes. They served students from 48 high schools last year, primarily in Northern Colorado, but a few were from all over the state. A couple were even from out of state.
“It’s really not just a Thompson district thing anymore,” Smith says. “It’s a NOCO thing.”
The foundation is still seeking formal attire. The need is greater for guys, but they will always accept dresses, jewelry, clutches and other accessories. They’re currently collecting outfits until the end of February at various drop-off locations, including the Ace Hardware located at 269 E. 29th St. in Loveland. Akeley-Charron still receives them too: The day she talked to NOCO Style about the program, she had a dress hanging on her office door.
The foundation works hard to present Project Prom just like any department store, with sections for jewelry, shoes and purses as well as dresses and suits lined up neatly. Volunteers help students find their size, bring them different options while they change in a room and match the attire with the right bling. Parents sit on furniture loaned by Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore and wait for their teens to show off what they select.
“We know it’s as good an experience as any store in the region,” Smith says. “That was very important to us.”
Photos by Jordan Secher.
Project Prom provided outfits for 193 students in 2023 and 318 in 2024. Akeley-Charron expects those numbers to grow even more this year as the word gets out (the 2025 location in Centerra will be announced soon). In fact, they hope it does. They have a lot of dresses to give away in every color, style and size.
The foundation wants the variety: Some students prefer an edgier look, maybe even punk or camo, and some of the styles have surprised Akeley-Charron. She almost didn’t accept boxes of cowboy boots but, on a whim, decided to display them, thinking there was no way a girl would want to wear boots with her prom dress. They flew out the door, and boots remain one of their most popular items for students of all genders.
The need for free formal attire exists, and not just for those with low incomes. Fancy clothes are expensive for many families. Sometimes parents tell the organizers and volunteers that their son not only wore his suit to prom, but that he also wore it to a job interview.
“Prom is an elevated event for students,” Smith says. “They don’t want to stand out or wear anything that makes them feel different. They want to feel beautiful that night.”
The only document Project Prom asks for is a student ID so they can track the different high schools. Students don’t have to prove they need the outfit. The organizers can tell.
“It was magic, quite frankly,” Akeley-Charron says of that first year. “The girls were almost giddy.”
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The Project Prom pop-up shop will open at The Promenade Shops at Centerra this spring. Shopping will take place during the following dates and times:
• 5-7:30 p.m. Friday, April 11
(Thompson School District students only)
• 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 12
• 5-7:30 p.m. Friday, April 18
• 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 19
• 5-7:30 p.m. Friday, April 25
• 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 26
Visit thompsontef.org for information.