Prom dress giveaway lessens financial burden of event

It's that time of year again, it's prom season, and the cost of attending is going up.
But one organization with the help of some students from University of Louisiana, is helping to give prom dresses to seniors and juniors at Northwest High School.

Whether it's bedazzled, short, or long.

"I'm looking for a long fitted dress. But not too long, because I'm short," said Courtney Gallow, a student at Northwest High School.

Red, gold, you name it.

"It's kind of like, where you get to express kind of who you are, versus when you're in uniform every day. You get to pick out your dress, your favorite color, your favorite style," said Destiny Campione, a student at Northwest High.

Prom dress prices are getting more fancy and more expensive every year.

"The prom dress giveaway is special to buy bridesmaid dresses, because I remember my senior year, my mom couldn't afford a prom dress for me," said Maniko Barthelemey, an instructor at University of Louisiana.

She's also a member of the organization, 'Professionals Give Back,' which adopts a school every year to donate gently used prom dresses to.

This year the group chose Northwest High School, but when her organization was several dresses short, she reached out to her students for help.

"Prom can be very expensive. I remember paying about $400 for my senior prom, so being able to take away that burden of purchasing a dress, is the best feeling in the world," said Eman Boyd, a student at University of Louisiana.

With over 125 dresses to choose from, girls and their families from the school, can now eliminate some of the financial burdens that comes with prom.

Between hair, makeup, outfits, tickets and rides to prom, teens are spending an average of more than $600 on prom, that according to Yahoo Style's 2017 Prom Across America survey.

This project gives the students at Northwest High a chance to save money for other things.

"They have the hair and makeup money now, they have the money to go out, and have a nice dinner with their friends, because they're not spending hundreds of dollars on a dresses," said Markenia Jackson, Assistant Principal at Northwest High School.

And the final lesson of the day...

"As much as I care about them getting exactly what they need to get from the textbook, from my lectures and the test, I also care that they leave U.L. not only career ready, but community responsible," said Barthelemey.

One of the students at University of Louisiana is planning to give any leftover prom dresses, to girls from her former high school in Houma. With so many updating prom dresses news by ombreprom online now.