'Fairy godmothers' save prom night
Groups help high school students from low-income families cope with costs of attending graduation formals
Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service Published: Monday, May 25, 2009
The economic downturn has strained family budgets and created more Cinderellas than usual this prom season, but that hasn't changed grad planning or the Hollywood expectations that go with it.
Across the country, "fairy godmother" organizations that provide prom outfits for students on limited budgets say they have had more requests for help this year, right when donations have declined because the businesses that support them are suffering.
But that has not dampened prom hysteria.
"The kids certainly seem to still have the same expectations that they're going to do these things and that does really surprise me," said Val McGillis, a high school principal in Ottawa. "There's a culture in schools that's been around for some time now that prom is a very big event in the life of a Grade 12 student, and there's an awful lot of pressure."
Ms. McGillis expected the recession to have a bigger impact, but she says prom ticket sales at Immaculata High School have been normal and the 300-person June 12 event is sold out. Only three students have privately asked for help paying for tickets, she says, but she wonders how many have opted out of going altogether for financial reasons.
Turnout at school events was lower than usual this year at Riverside Secondary School as the Windsor economy reeled, said teacher and student parliament advisor Gary Rankin. But business is booming when it comes to commencement and prom.
They've already had more gown orders than expected for the school's June graduation ceremony, he said, and even with prom tickets priced at $100 a couple or $60 per person, they expect at least 250 students to attend.
"I think the priority is the graduation ... and I don't think money becomes the issue," Mr. Rankin said of parents. "Next year, we're looking at ways of doing things cheaper because we don't know what to expect."
But if the recession hasn't altered prom expectations, it's affected the ability of families to fulfill them.
The Corsage Project, a Toronto volunteer organization that outfits low-income girls with dresses, shoes, purses and makeup at its annual "Boutique Ball," saw a 30% bump in requests this year, said organizer Sarah Tuite. They helped about 300 girls at their May 3 event instead of the usual 220.
"The minute we started to see the referrals come in so rapidly, we knew were in for a big year and it was without a doubt indicative of the economic situation," she said.
Many students from low-income families count on part-time jobs for spending money or to help their families, Ms. Tuite says, but those have been harder to come by as out-of-work adults snap up the retail and service-industry positions. On top of that, donations have declined as businesses feel the crunch, she said, and the organization is concerned that new dress contributions from retailers will fall off even further next year.
Like The Corsage Project, many prom charities focus on helping girls because prom is on
average a $500 investment for them, Ms. Tuite said, while boys can get away with wearing a suit they already own.
"Our job is not to judge whether a prom is extravagant or right or wrong; our job is to even the playing field and make sure everybody is able to have that experience and not be denied just because of cost," she said.
Pat Baker, the grad advisor at Harry Ainlay High School in Edmonton, has seen economic ebbs and flows over the course of a 37-year education career. Extras fall by the wayside and more students get part-time jobs in tough times, she said, but in other cases, families simply cut back in one area in order to provide what they see as important experiences for their children.
"It is a rite of passage for them," Ms. Baker said. "This is the last time they're together as a group to share that with one another and to celebrate and honour what they've done here at the school."
Janine Eccleston, 18, a Grade 12 student and grad president at Harry Ainlay High School, celebrated her graduation with a Friday night commencement and awards evening followed by a Saturday night formal event.
Tickets for the banquet and dance were $65, she said, and with 700 graduates attending along with their families and friends, they expected to sell more than the 1,900 tickets that they did. She's heard of some extended family members opting not to attend because of expense this year, she said, but the guys were still decked out in tuxes or suits and the girls in long or short dresses. Ms. Eccleston found her long red satin gown on a recent trip to Vancouver.
"A bunch of us are taking a limo together and meeting up at four o'clock to take pictures at the legislature," she said of pre-banquet plans organized on Facebook.
In its 10th year, The Cinderella Project in Vancouver had more applications this year than ever before, said founder and co-executive director Heather MacKenzie. The program includes mentorship along with prom gear and focuses on helping teens from high-risk backgrounds that include homelessness, drug and alcohol problems in the home and extreme poverty, she said. This year, they saw more children living on their own because of parental addiction that Ms. MacKenzie suspects is a chain reaction to job losses.
"The hard part for us is, because the kids we're taking in are in dire straights, when we get applications from someone who's saying, 'I can't make it to my graduation because my dad's lost his job and my mom's working a minimum-wage job and it's very hard for us to make ends meet,' we can't help those kids," she said.
But high school graduation is a hugely important milestone even -- or especially -- for struggling families, she saids, recalling a sobbing mother who told her she'd used her last rent payment to pay for her son's grad photos because he was the first in their family to get a high school diploma.
"I can't help but think how many families, despite these dire circumstances, feel the social pressure," she said.
"I don't think anything really is scaling back. I think it is overblown, there's way too much pressure on any family to spend thousands of dollars."
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