Over the weekend, a mom received a phone call with an urgent request from her friend who works at Alexandria City High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
The teacher told Kristen Creighton that a nonprofit scheduled to host a prom dress drive at the could no longer host the event due to an emergency.
With prom less than 12 days away and 40 students still urgently needing something to wear, Creighton rallied her community to save prom by spreading the word online.
"Everyone else reacted like I did. It just breaks your heart,” Creighton said.
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Prom dresses started showing up on her porch within hours of posting about the need for donations, she said.
"That was just the tip of the iceberg," Creighton added.
Jaime Dawson, who saw Creighton’s post online, said she asked her neighbors to help, too. She told News4 that her pile of dresses for the high school students quickly grew.
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"Within an hour, an hour and a half, I had 37 dresses in my car as I went around the neighborhood and collected [them]," Dawson said.
Additionally, a woman messaged Dawson on social media, saying she had seven garbage bags full of formal dresses to donate.
"About 400 dresses … are in a storage room at the high school now," Creighton said with a smile.
As News4 arrived at Alexandria City High School to see the dress collection, another person arrived with more donations.
In total, over 600 dresses have been donated.
“This community is amazing, and it really shows that they'll step up when needed, with no questions asked,” Creighton said.
On Saturday, the students will go to the school to pick their dresses — with lots of options to sort through.
The moms have contacted several nonprofit organizations who will take the remaining dresses, an effort to keep paying it forward for others.
In a statement to News4, the nonprofit that had to cancel the dress drive said it had intended to rescheduled and had held two successful prom dress events in Alexandria in April.
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