BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WPMI) Prom is a special night for most teenagers as they go through high school and a non-profit in Baldwin County is working to make sure every girl gets a chance to get dressed up for the night even though those dresses can get pricey.
A mix-up just a few weeks before the big night has left the Heritage Junior Women's Club without the hundreds of dresses they need to donate. For the past eight years, Melanie Sikes and the club have helped host "Emily's Closet," where young ladies headed to the prom can pick from dozens of donated prom dresses.
"We lost over 400 dresses and two weeks from the event we are short several hundred dresses," said Sikes.
Those dresses were destroyed accidentally at the storage facility where they were housed. The event is coming up March 9, a week from Saturday.
"We'll accept dresses up until the event. We would like as many by Friday March 1, just so we can see how many dresses we do have and to see what kind of need we may have to push for the last week," said Sikes.
Word is getting out and that takes us to Fairhope where Kathy McClure owner of Younique Boutique, a consignment shop, has asked her customers to donate.
"I see almost 100 dresses that I've pulled that need a good home. So this is the perfect opportunity to give to the community that's given to me so," said McClure.
Good for Kathy and good for Melanie, who by the way Emily's closet is named in honor of her little sister who died in a car accident in 2003 while she was a student at Baldwin County High School.
"To be able to give them a piece of mind that they can go to that event and not have to be a hardship on their family," said Sikes.
More than a hundred girls take advantage of the dress give away each year. To donate dresses can be dropped off at any local Baldwin County high school.
