By MADDY VITALE
Nicole Carey, a senior at Ocean City High School, wanted to continue a tradition that her sister began two years ago – helping others to enjoy the big prom night without the worry of purchasing pricey gowns.
Nicole’s sister, Stephanie, who graduated from OCHS last year, began a prom dress giveaway in 2020 through Becca’s Closet.
With her big sister away at Drexel University majoring in fashion, Nicole wanted to keep the dress giveaway going to help take some of the stress and worry out of buying outfits for the special night.
“We want to make sure that all of our students have an opportunity to take advantage of this,” Nicole said in a statement. “Our biggest need right now is to get the word out to students and parents that the dresses will be available next week on March 1 and 2.”
Students will be able to browse and select from the gowns that will be displayed in the Community Room from 2:45 p.m. to 4 p.m. on both March 1 and March 2.
Debra Cathcart, a business teacher at Ocean City High School who is coordinating the gown giveaway, said there has been an outpouring of support from the community.
“The collection was so overwhelmingly successful,” Cathcart said. “There are close to 300 dresses collected from the past two years.”
Back in 2020, when Stephanie Carey came up with the idea to have dresses donated for the prom, she asked her parents, Marty and Michele Carey, to find a venue to hold the giveaway. She wanted it to be a place where students could go to try on the gowns and feel like they were in a store.
But there was no prom in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, the dresses that were donated by local businesses and from as far away as New York City, sat at the Carey home in Upper Township. And there were 250 of them.
Then in 2021, Stephanie, with the help of Sea Isle City’s Italian American Club, joined up for a successful prom dress giveaway.
With new donations of gowns, there are 300 to choose from. And students will have a host of styles to choose from as well.
This year organizers decided it was best to hold the event within the school so that it was more easily accessible to all students.
Cathcart said the community has really come together for a worthy cause.
“Thanks to the generosity of so many, no further dresses are being accepted through donations,” she said.
