WFU student collects dresses to make prom dreams come true

Kelly Williamson

Wake Forest junior Kelly Williamson understands the importance of prom for high school students. She also knows that for many high school girls, the perfect dress for the big night is financially out of reach.

That is why Williamson started the first campus-wide prom dress drive at Wake Forest University. The drive is sponsored by Wake Forest’s Volunteer Service Corps, the Wake Forest chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and The Salvation Army Thrift Store.

Williamson, a member of Delta Sigma Theta, says she hopes Wake Forest’s other sororities will embrace the idea and donate dresses by the last day of the drive, Feb. 28.

“There are so many formal parties on campus and usually a girl wears a particular dress once,” said Williamson, a graduate of Victory Christian Academy from Gastonia. “It makes sense to make those little-worn dresses available to high school girls who might think they can’t go to the prom because they can’t afford a dress.”

Dresses can be placed in a donation box in the Volunteer Service Corps Office in Benson University Center.

Once the dresses are collected, they will be given to The Salvation Army Thrift Store at 4239 Patterson Avenue in Winston-Salem, where high school students can buy them for discount prices.

Williamson plans on working with the dress drive sponsors to spread the word to area high schools.

“We want to let the students know these dresses will be available to them at the thrift store,” said Williamson. “We hope this will make prom magical for more girls.”