Program lets grads say yes to the dress

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This article was published 29/04/2015 (3901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Surrounded by a rainbow of tulle, satin and sequins, Precious Phillips is choosing her grad dress. A meeting room at the RBC Convention Centre has been temporarily transformed into a couture boutique, minus the price tags. “There are lots of great dresses here,” she marvels.

Phillips, 17, is among the students from 63 high schools who are participating in the Gowns for Grads program, a volunteer initiative by the Laura Milner White Committee that allows young women who need it to pick up a dress, shoes, a bag and a piece of jewelry free of charge.

Since 2009, more than 1,200 graduates have received their grad dresses through the program. The response from the community has been overwhelming; around 1,800 gowns were donated to Gowns for Grads this year. Those interested in donating dresses for next year can start doing so this summer at Perth’s locations; the program is always in need of plus-size dresses.

St. John’s High School first created Gowns for Grads after being alerted to a sobering fact: Students were not attending their Safe Grads because they couldn’t afford a dress.

That was certainly the reality for Phillips, who immigrated from Nigeria with her family six years ago and attends Fort Richmond Collegiate. “I wasn’t planning to go to grad because my mom couldn’t really afford a dress. When you think about it, it’s a lot of money. I wanted to go to grad and I wanted to experience that with my friends. It was really sad. My mom didn’t say I couldn’t go, but I could tell she didn’t really want to spend that kind of money — and I don’t blame her.”

In many respects, grad has taken a page from the wedding industrial complex — you know, that $5-billion-a-year industry that essentially banks on women caving under the pressure and plunging themselves into debt for the Most Important Day Of Their Lives.

Grad, too, has become a high-cost, expectation-filled event, albeit on a smaller scale; I like to think of it as the training wheels for the wedding industrial complex. Last year, Canadian families spent an average of $804 on grad. That number has dropped significantly this year, to $508 — but that is still prohibitive for many. Dresses aren’t cheap. Neither are updos, manicures and shoes.

And that’s to say nothing of a new trend that’s gaining popularity: high-production value “Promposals,” in which kids are spending hundreds of dollars to ask each other to prom.

But graduating from high school is an important rite of passage that everyone should feel they can participate in. As Gowns for Grads chairwoman Brooke Bouchard says, “they’ve worked hard to graduate. They should have the full experience.”

Gowns for Grads makes it easier for young women and their families to say yes to the dress.

“If you walk around the room, you can hear them as they choose their dress: ‘This would never have been able to happen. I wouldn’t be able to have a dress like this before,’” Bouchard says. “They’re quite overwhelmed. The reality is, not everyone can afford to spend that much money on grad. What we’re able to do here is give these girls the experience. It’s an equalizer.”

Precious agrees. “I think it’s a great experience for people who can’t really afford it, to get an opportunity to hang out with their friends,” she says. “They have dress sizes for everyone. It’s very inclusive.”

Her Fort Richmond Collegiate classmates Aurore Ingenere, 17, and Senami Saibu, also 17, are also hunting for the perfect dress. Ingenere wasn’t comfortable with the idea of spending money on a dress she’ll wear once; she felt it would be wasteful. Saibu says the program takes the pressure off and she’s thankful for the opportunity. “I want to thank the sponsors and everyone who has donated,” she says. “God bless them.”

All three girls plan to pay it forward. They will be donating their dresses back to Gowns for Grads so that other girls may enjoy them.

 

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca