For many girls, prom is the night they look forward to their whole lives. In movies and photos, prom looks to be a special, spectacular night for everyone, especially when you have a dress you will never forget. Dress shopping starts early, with many girls looking for their dream prom dresses and finding the right dress before everyone else.
However for some girls, finding the right dress isn’t so easy. There are so many different scenarios that cause dress shopping to not be in the cards for some girls. Trying to change this problem is a new project looking to help girls get their dream dress.
Realizing how many girls might need help, senior Arianna Conomacos started The Sparkle Project to help girls here and hopefully across the country. This project is something she has picked up for her Gold Award in Girl Scouts, something that she has looked into earning since freshman year. The idea sparked from a facebook post of someone asking about a program providing dresses at Londonderry. Conomacos was worried the project wouldn’t happen with prom being in three months, but was excited when the opportunity arose.
“[Prom] is just such a big memory that everyone here in America has of high school, their high school prom, their senior prom,” Conomacos said. “I know sometimes when you have difficulties with money and stuff that you can’t always participate in big events like prom to the fullest, and I know a lot of people don’t recognize that. Just because you’re able to go, doesn’t mean that you’re getting the same experience as everyone else.”
With her idea set in place, Conomacos looked for someone to help her along the way. The House 4 Vice Principal, Katie Sullivan was someone that Conomacos thought of because of her ability to spread the word and help others in the community.
“You have to have a project advisor who acts like a consultant and is like a specialist in that area in some way,” Conomacos said. “For a lot of the [project]ideas I had I didn’t really have that and with Miss. Sullivan being in town, most people know who she is, unless they’re living under some weird rock somewhere so I knew it was an opportunity. Like, ‘oh this is it, this is something I have to do,’”
Conomacos had thrown out the idea of a “Prom Dress Closet” before figuring out she would have a chance at doing something like that in Londonderry. Once she got the go ahead and Sullivan to work alongside her, the plan began to come together. Flyers were created by Conomacos as Officer Tufo’s office started its own transformation into a Prom Dress Boutique and The Sparkle project really started to come together. The main thing they are looking for is donations of dresses and drop-offs can be coordinated with those donations.
“I know the biggest thing is just how many people donate dresses and the quality of those dresses. I know the bare minimum of tailoring and my grandmother knows a lot about tailoring, so I know we can make basic repairs. Like if you have a small hole, we can probably stitch it back together,” Conomacos said. “We’re just hoping that people don’t just come in with trash bags of dresses.”
The Sparkle Project is also planning to work on other projects to pull everything together. They are looking for businesses to provide things for the boutique on prom day.
“We’re hoping, depending on if we’re able to get volunteers on prom day, to have girls come down, they can get their hair done,” Conomacos said. “We can also provide corsages if we can find someone who’s willing to donate them or if we can get the funds to purchase them.”
Since announcing the project, Conomacos has experienced positive feedback from the community as a whole. The project has shown her how “tight knit” Londonderry is, as they come together to help her idea come to life.
“It seems like people are willing to help, happy to help, which is what I’m excited for,” Conomacos said. “I know people outside of Londonderry have a very particular view of our town, but I don’t think people realize that just because a lot of people have a lot of money, that they still do give it back to the community.”
Conomacos wants to make sure that the girls feel comfortable coming and getting dresses. She explains that asking for help should never make girls feel ashamed as The Sparkle Project is there to help girls feel beautiful.
“I’m just hoping that girls are willing, if they do need a dress, to come to us because I know how sometimes when you’re having difficulty with money, going and asking for help can be kind of embarrassing,” Conomacos said. “We are trying to keep it so if girls do come to us, we keep it as private as we can, because we know not everyone wants that.”
The Sparkle Project aims to help girls in Londonderry and maybe even in other places as well. With their goal of providing prom dresses, they also hope to provide girls with a night they will never forget: their prom night.
“I’ve hoped that depending on how many donations we get, we can help as many girls go to prom and be able to participate in it to the fullest of their abilities and go and just feel like the queen of the ball,” Conomacos said.
