OVS teams up with Abby's Closet for
By Christina Moran '07
The Office of Volunteer Services (OVS) today begins a formal dress drive through Abby's Closet, a Portland-based organization that provides prom dresses to high school girls who are unable to afford their own gowns.
Dresses may be dropped off in the Mehling Hall Ballroom or the OVS office from now until April 6.
According to Melissa Florer-Bixler, assistant OVS director, the dress drive helps people with special needs that are not met by more traditional volunteer efforts like food and clothing drives.
"We underestimate how poverty can be very subtle," Florer-Bixler said.
This year's drive is an experiment of sorts for the UP community. Dress drives for Abby's Closet usually take place at high schools, Florer-Bixler said, and whether or not UP participates in the drive next year depends on how many dresses OVS receives this year.
"We're really just interested to see how it goes with UP this year," Florer-Bixler said.
Florer-Bixler said UP is an appropriate place for a formal dress drive because there are a lot of young women on campus who went to prom and other dances and don't use their dresses anymore.
For sophomore OVS intern Toni Rorden, the dress drive is a way to ensure that all young women have the chance to participate in an important high school tradition.
"I think everybody should get to go to their prom if they want to," Rorden said.
All the donated dresses will be given away at the Abby's Closet third annual Prom Boutique on April 14 and 15 at the Oregon Convention Center in downtown Portland. In previous years people began to line up outside the Convention Center at 6 a.m., four hours before the event starts, Florer-Bixler said.
Volunteers are needed to help sort and distribute dresses and for event setup and take down. OVS and Abby's Closet are also collecting small beauty items, such as unused makeup, perfume, hand cream and shampoo samples. For more information on the dress drive, contact Florer-Bixler at bixler@up.edu.
