Prom Dresses for New Orleans attracted national attention and the help of people from every state in America who wanted to give others the thrill of wearing a special dress on a special night. In addition to collecting dresses, Marisa and her team of dedicated volunteers were able to organize the donation of the services of a shipping company that provided an eighteen wheeler and a driver for the delivery, seamstresses who flew in to alter and custom sew dresses, dozens of volunteers on the Gulf Coast who coordinated the distribution to ten schools in the first year, make-up artists who traveled from Texas to volunteer on prom night, the accompaniment of jewelry and all kinds of accessories, as well as a $10,000 donation for the latest computer equipment. In total, 2,800 dresses were collected in 2006 for the girls in New Orleans and Mississippi.
Prom Dresses for New Orleans is a continuing collection. In 2007 the campaign focused on collecting jewelry to help the New Orleans prom-goers glitter and shine. Over 1,000 pieces of jewelry and accessories were delivered as well as hundreds of dresses. The 2008 prom season celebrated the delivery of the 5,000th dress! The 2009 plan included a high school in Galveston, Texas where families have been recovering from Hurricane Ike. Many thanks to The Lamplighter School in Dallas for partnering with us to support the Ball High School prom in Galveston again in 2010. Warren Easton High School in New Orleans is also gratefully accepting dresses this year.
It is clear that the residents affected by Hurricane Katrina are still in the minds and the hearts of people across America. It has become more clear that that the devastation caused by hurricanes extends across the entire Gulf Coast. Prom Dresses for New Orleans helps channel these thoughts to provide thousands of young women with the chance to forget about the devastation for one night. It's not the dress, it's the memories that are created; every dress had a story before it reached the young women on the Gulf Coast. Now these dresses have one more story to tell: a story of how almost six thousand grateful girls were able to live in a fairy tale for one night ... and still counting.