Princess for a day
By Edward Eveld The Kansas City Star October 6, 2007
Free dresses, hair and makeup turn Olathe North girls into belles of the football ball
Kylee Bergeron and Alyson Eargle, seniors at Olathe North High School, thought there might be a catch.
A teacher in Room 220 had racks of dresses on display for homecoming. Girls could simply pick a gown they liked, and it was theirs for the dance.
Free dresses? Alyson thought. Yeah, right.
No, really. One hundred dresses to choose from. Some worn once. Some brand new.
This is what can happen when someone realizes that a persistent abundance over here would help satisfy a perennial need over there.
Over here you have one-time-use classy and classic dresses, worn to recent weddings or other formal occasions and already beginning their march to the back of the closet.
And over there you have teenage girls who need such gowns to wear on homecoming night.
“Why should high school girls have to pay hundreds of dollars for a dress they’ll wear once, when we already did?” Diane Owen said.
The idea got its start several months ago. Owen, her sister Denise Herman and some friends had formed a “girls’ night out” club that began developing community-service projects. When the group brainstormed an October project, a lightbulb went on for Herman, an Olathe North teacher and graduate.
What about free makeovers — hair, makeup, nails and toes — for homecoming? Her sister thought it was a great idea.
“They need to feel like princesses on that day,” Owen said.
Herman started a sign-up sheet at the school. One student wrote down her name and asked, “When do we find out if we won?”
Herman gave her the good news that it wasn’t a raffle.
Later, another student told Herman that although the makeovers were cool, she worried whether she would have the money to buy a formal dress for the dance.
That’s when the lightbulb got even brighter.
Nearly all the 30 women in the group — they call themselves the Round Robins Women’s Association — had participated in weddings in the last year or two or had attended other formal events.
Heck, Owen had been in six weddings herself in the last three years.
The call went out for members to donate those gowns, which were unlikely to be worn again.
In short order, 30 dresses were collected, then 50 and finally more than 100, with help from friends of the group’s members and Olathe North teachers. The teenagers would wear the gowns for homecoming and return them the next week. Then those dresses, plus others still to be donated, would be offered to girls for prom.
Herman displayed the dresses on clothes storage racks in an office area of Room 220. The conference room next door became a fitting room. Posters went up, and announcements were made: Girls could drop by before or after school or during their activity period.
Kylee and Alyson were among the first to sign up for makeovers — they’ll be at school at 2:40 this afternoon — and decided to look over the dresses. Kylee was surprised by her quick luck in finding a gown.
“Mine is the first dress I took off the rack,” she said. “It’s brand new. It still had the tags on it — $180. And it’s a long white dress with black lace. I would never have thought about white.”
Alyson figured she would have trouble finding a good fit.
“I’m between sizes,” she said. “Usually I have to try on a lot of dresses.”
She struck out at first with a pink dress, but the next gown that caught her eye, strapless, dark blue and calf-length, was a perfect fit.
Alyson and Kylee said they won’t miss dress shopping. After multiple hours going from store to store, it’s not as fun as it sounds.
But will they feel embarrassed to divulge that the dresses were borrowed? Not Alyson.
“I went back to all my classes and told everybody, ‘Hey, I just got a free dress and free hair and makeup!”
And not Kylee, either — especially after doing the math. Hair could cost $60, nails $40 and makeup $20. Plus the $180 dress, that’s $300, she said.
Along with all the regular homecoming activities, the decorating contests, the rallies, the dress-up days, perhaps another tradition has begun.
Herman enjoyed helping girls choose dresses that looked good on them. And it was especially neat to see one of her dresses get picked, she said.
“It was a strapless lavender gown with a diamond buckle,” Herman said. “She borrowed the matching shoes, too.”
Herman said homecoming is more formal and pricier than when she was in school. And the school population at Olathe North has become more diverse over the years, Herman said. Many of the students work part-time jobs, some even to help support their families, she said.
Julia Ockerhausen, a teacher who volunteered to help with makeovers, said some of the girls wouldn’t otherwise get fussed over before the dance. Thirty girls signed up for hair, makeup and nails.
“It should be fun,” she said. “It sounds like a great big girl party.”
As for the gowns, more than 50 were checked out. They were long, short and medium in length, with straps and without, decorated with beads and lace or simple and unadorned. That’s 50 girls who didn’t have to worry about spending big money on dresses.
Owen said she hopes others pick up on the idea.
“My eyes get wide whenever I think about it,” she said. “It has honestly been such a heartwarming experience.”
Want to try this at your school?
Excerpts from the Round Robins Women’s Association’s tip sheet for their homecoming project are on KansasCity.com. More information can be found on the group’s Web site, roundrobinskc.com.
The Big Day
Want to do a makeover and gown event at your school? Prom will be here before you know it. Here are excerpts from the tip sheet by the Round Robins Women’s Association for their Olathe North High School homecoming project. The group donated gowns for girls to borrow and offered free hair, makeup and nail makeovers.
Group relieves dance pressure
The Olathe Daily News- Tuesday, October 9, 2007
By Kristen Babcock
It was an experience they began to dread.
Alyson Eargle, an Olathe North High School senior, once spent nearly an entire day waiting to get her hair done.
Sophomore Shelbe Owens didn’t want to have to worry about all that is involved in preparing for a homecoming dance.
“There’s so much,” Owens said. “You have to have a pretty perfect dress, be on time, know what your date is going to wear, getting a date...”
Resource teacher Denise Herman said her homecoming dance experience brought back memories of “fun” and “pampering.”
She said she knew girls sometimes worked to make extra money to attend a school dance. But then Herman started hearing about girls who would avoid the event because of the stress and cost.
“It wasn’t as formal when I went to high school,” Herman said.
Herman approached her Round Robins-Kansas City community service group about a way to help these girls. The group of 30 women helped nearly 30 Olathe North girls get ready for their homecoming dance Saturday.
“It was a big girl party,” Herman said. “It was a relaxed atmosphere. We’ve all been there and know what it costs now.
“It all stemmed from the idea of taking that pressure away from the kids.”
The Round Robins group gets together monthly to do everything from after-work happy hours to jewelry parties. But this time they decided to gather their talents to give girls an experience they once had enjoyed. Some of the group members were professional hair and makeup artists, and one was a professional model.
“They were so excited,” Herman said of the high school girls. “For some of (the students) it was their first manicure or pedicure. They got tips from professionals and were allowed to be pampered.”
The women also provided dresses that either never were worn or worn only once.
“They loved it; it was like shopping for free,” Herman said. “They were classic and classy.”
Eargle picked out a sleek, dark navy dress with a sash. Having the assistance gave her a chance to spend more time with her friends than at the salon, she said.
“We had extra money to go to dinner and go bowling,” Eargle said. “It wasn’t time consuming. I hope they do this again. It’s good for people who are kind of short on cash.”
And Owens said the event helped with her stress level.
“I loved it; it turned out perfect,” Owens said. “It just made me feel great. There was girl talk about boys and dates. They made me feel comfortable.”
The experience went well enough that Herman said she thinks the group hopes to assist girls in getting ready for prom.
“Everyone deserves to have the feeling of being a princess and having that glamorous feeling,” Herman said. “It builds self-confidence, builds self-esteem when a girl realizes how beautiful she can be.”