Parsippany Library Offering Donated Prom Dresses For Just $15
PARSIPPANY, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – The main library in Parsippany, New Jersey is hosting its first prom sale, giving girls a great deal.
Brooke Henao, 15, said 'yes' to the dress.
"I feel really pretty, I feel like a princess," she said. "I really like the color."
Her junior prom dress, that is. She said it was an easy one to find, though she had plenty of options.
"I really like the dresses here, they are really pretty," she said.
The Parsippany High School student and many other New Jersey teens are ditching the fancy dress stores and coming to the Parsippany-Troy Hills Main Library for their prom needs.
"We put out a call for donated prom dresses about two months ago, and we just had an overwhelming amount of donations from the community," said organizer Hannah Cazenas.
It's the first year the library is hosting the prom dress sale. They have more than 300 donated dresses from sizes zero to 22. Some of them still have the tags on them, and all are just $15 each.
"All the proceeds of this event are going to be going to our teen programming department," Cazenas said.
Organizers hope to help empower girls in the area, because most are buying the dresses with their own money – no help from mom or dad.
"Prom is a big event and a lot of prom dresses are really expensive, like hundreds of dollars. So I think this is a really good idea," Morris County School of Technology student Rae Lynn Li said.
One family just moved to the area from India and said they've never done prom before. They're excited to start the new tradition with a deal.
"It's a dream come true for the family. She is our first daughter and she is attending to her first prom," the mom said.
The library hopes to expand the efforts next year and include tuxedos for young men.
The event lasts all weekend. For more information, click here.