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Preparing for prom

Family members and graduating students worried about expensive prom dresses were glad to find something they liked at an annual fundraising event Saturday.
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Catherine Millard, 17, holds up a dress at the Gowns for a Cause dress sale on Saturday. (Jeff Labine, tbnewswatch.com)

Family members and graduating students worried about expensive prom dresses were glad to find something they liked at an annual fundraising event Saturday.

More than 50 people looked at donated dresses at the second Gowns for a Cause dress sale at the Current River Community Centre. The sale offered dresses for $20. Money raised from the sale went toward the acquired brain injury department at St. Joseph’s Care Group.

Susan Dupont said she wanted her granddaughter Jazmyn, 18, and her friend Jenna Thomspon, 17, to come early to the sale so they could find a good dress. Dupont said dresses usually cost a lot of money -- from about $300 to $500.

"It’s a huge cost and they want to look good," Dupont said.

Both girls wanted to find a strapless dress, which Jazmyn found. Jazmyn said she was worried she wouldn’t find a dress in time for graduation but was glad she found the blue one she liked.

Carri Poole brought her two nieces to try on dresses for their Grade 8 graduation. She said she liked the price and how unique some of the dresses were.

"This is fantastic," Poole said. "Even in Grade 8 they start such a big production. You want a dress to be more reasonable in price."

Kayla Kannegiesser, organizer of Gowns for a Cause, said the number of dresses donated increased by 300 from last year. Last year's sale raised $1,000 for the Friends of Olivia Foundation.

Kannegiesser said the idea of selling donated dresses came about when she and her sister looked through their closets and found their old prom dresses. Thinking they wouldn’t wear them again, Kannegiesser said they decided to recycle the dresses so someone else could wear them.

"Prom for a high school girl is the closest to a wedding as you’re going to get," Kannegiesser said. "Prom can be such an expensive time in a girl's life and it's great to provide an opportunity for girls to get them at a lower cost."

Kannegiesser said she wanted to expand the sale even further to ensure girls have a dress for any occasion. She said she would like to have local businesses become involved to help with the workload.

"Prom is a big deal to girls and it is nice to help them feel pretty for that day," she said.





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