While the guys were riding at the track on Saturday, I was working at the Prom Closet at the downtown main public library. It’s a sprawling, many floored facility with lots and lots of offerings. I really love it there, though it’s a little bit of a drive from our house so I usually use one of the closer branch libraries. But I’ve been to the main library for a couple of book festivals which were great fun, and for my training when I worked the census a couple of years ago. They have a ton of programs and activities for the community and honestly I just love libraries and all they stand for. 🙂
Every year the library sponsors a prom closet for students who would otherwise not be able to afford a dress or a suit and accessories to wear to prom. Now, I have many feelings about this…I never had a prom because I went to high school in Abilene TX where dancing was considered a ‘sin’ at the time so no proms were allowed. And I was also an anti establishment little hippie-ish girl who thought proms were a stupid tradition that reinforced all sorts of societal mores that were better deconstructed…so I didn’t care if we didn’t have a prom, I just thought the reasoning was wrong. LOL I still have some of those thoughts but in my older years I suppose I have mellowed a bit and understand that it is a fun tradition for some kids. And if you want to participate, it’s sad if you can’t. Don’t get me started on the amounts of money privileged people can spend on a silly dance, and how that must make other kids feel when they know there’s no way they can compete, but they still want to get to go. Enter the Prom Closet as a bandaid solution to a much larger societal inequity problem.
Kids had to sign up for a time slot and they could bring one person with them, usually a parent or guardian. We volunteers were assigned one student at a time and we stayed with them through the whole process of looking at clothing, trying things on (no, I did not go in the dressing room with them LOL), finding shoes and jewelry and a purse and putting the whole outfit together. I was amazed at the quantity and quality of donated items…some dresses still had tags on them, provided by dress shops and bridal shops. I imagine they were from last season or maybe even older but they were still beautiful and stylish. The other clothes were very gently used and you could hardly tell if they’d been worn. We had mostly dresses but also suits and some funkier kinds of outfits for those kids who might be so inclined. 🙂
During my shift, I helped three girls find their perfect dress, shoes, jewelry and a purse. It was really heartwarming to see how happy and excited they were. I hope they have a wonderful prom experience and I hope we get to a point where #1 proms don’t exist any more or #2 no one has to feel “less than” and need charity to attend if they want to attend.
No pix of the students for confidentiality’s sake, but here are a few photos from the day. The library staff did a great job of decorating the place to look like a fun little shop with music playing and photo opportunities for those ever-important selfies. 🙂
Postcards from Retirement 
