FLORENCE, Ky. — More attempts to make sure juniors and seniors have the outfit of their dreams at prom this year were underway on Saturday in Florence. Volunteers with Cinderella's Closet were collecting gently used formal gowns (three years of age or less) and other formal wear. Founder and Director Erin Peterson said these gowns could be picked by a teen to wear to Prom 2023.
“It’s an important milestone in your life. You’re a junior or senior. Everybody deserves to have that fun with their friends before they go off to college or go off to work,” Peterson said.
Peterson said the organization came to life in 2006. The inspiration behind Cinderella’s Closet is something she stumbled upon one day while out shopping. Peterson said she came across a girl who couldn’t afford a prom dress and she stepped up to pay for her.
“And when she walked out the door, she told me she looked just like Cinderella. So I came home and thought we could do that for some other girls and then we started the next spring. We had a thousand dresses and a hundred girls came to see us. The next year we saw about 300 or 400 girls and now there’s 14 other Cinderella’s Closets throughout the nation,” Peterson said.
She’s all about helping people out and that’s been the goal at Cinderella’s Closet.
“If you see an opportunity to help another person, I always say do that. Everybody in their community can make a difference in the world— you just have to be willing to take the first step,” Peterson said.
For this organization, it’s all about playing a role in teenagers’ lives. Peterson said Cinderella’s Closet does other work, including help with senior portraits and offering scholarship opportunities. All year, this organization is collecting dresses and doing what they can to make a difference in someone’s life. This prom season, the closet will help several juniors and seniors pick out an outfit for the ball.
“Each girl will receive her own personal fairy godmother to get to pick the dress of her dreams. She’ll get to pick the perfect glass slipper and beautiful sparkly jewelry, and we just hope she leaves with a huge smile on her face when she dances out our doors.”
Peterson said it’s not just about a dress or matching shoes and jewelery to go with it, it’s about lifting someone up who may not have the means to go to prom or who may just need a boost.
“We want to make sure that they know that there are people that feel like they are the most important. We want to give them a special day all to themselves where they get to feel like a princess,” Peterson said.
The organization hosts a weekend giveaway in northern Kentucky in March, just in time for the ball.