PORTLAND, Ore — The local nonprofit Abby's Closet will hold their annual Prom Dress Giveaway at the Oregon Convention Center this weekend. It will be the first time the event has been held since the start of the pandemic.
“People are excited,” said Abby’s Closet Co-Founder Abby Wilson. “Obviously, things are opening up a little bit. People haven’t had prom for a couple of years, so the fact that proms are happening is exciting.”
This year’s event at the Oregon Convention Center is happening in Hall D on Saturday from 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
For the first time, Abby’s Closet is asking that students register ahead of time through their website.
“We have 7,000 dresses, we have sizes 0 to 20 plus. Every style imaginable,” said Wilson. “You also get a free accessory.”
The giveaway is open to all high school students.
“You can come with your best friends and all walk out with a beautiful outfit for prom that’s perfect for you," Wilson said.
This tradition of giving away free dresses to local high school students started with a pink dress that Wilson wore to her prom 18 years ago.
“Abby had just graduated from high school and was packing up to leave for college,” said Sally Egland, Abby's mom and the co-founder of Abby’s Closet. “When she got to [the pink] dress and some others she had in her closet, she didn’t know what to do with them. So, we started talking about how we could get the dress into the hands of other students and came up with the idea of starting a nonprofit.”
After a decade of hosting in-person giveaways and then missing the event altogether in 2020, Sally and Abby came up with an alternative way to keep the spirt of their nonprofit alive in 2021.
“We thought it was super important to get the dresses into the hands of high schoolers,” says Wilson. “So, we took dresses [and] drove them all over Oregon and Washington to High Schools and let them distribute them on their own.”
Abby’s Closet gave away 2,300 dresses last year by making those road trips to local high schools.
This year, they’re ready for the high schoolers to come back to them, and they have over 7,000 dresses waiting for those students this weekend at the Oregon Convention Center.