Making Prom Affordable

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At Cornerstone, we are constantly on the lookout for ways to minister to the community . My wife was talking with some of our youth about prom and they talked about doing a prom dress outreach.  One of our ministry friends has a similar outreach in the Johnson City/Kingsport area called Head 2 Toe, and we thought about how we could make something similar work here in our city.

They ended up with the idea to take donated prom dresses and accessories and plan a big weekend extravaganza, selling dresses for only $20 and giving out multiple door prizes.  The idea grew and more people became excited about how we could meet a need in our community. With the high unemployment levels and the high poverty levels in our community, a reality is that many girls simply cannot afford to go to prom. We want them to realize that they are special and loved in God’s eyes, and we want to show them that we care. Along with the door prizes, we will be giving each girl a special packet of material to let them know that Jesus cares for them as well.

When we announced it at church, the idea really took off. An article first showed up in the Carroll County News. Then it was picked up by WXII-12 news in Greensboro/Winston. Then it was picked up and shared by the national Christian radio station K-Love (listen to the segment here), and it hasn’t stopped yet.  Our local paper is doing a feature story in Friday’s edition, and we are receiving a lot of phone calls from people wanting to help. This event has really seemed to connect with our community and with our church.

So the excitement is building and we can’t wait to open up our church as prom dress central on March 11th and 12th. Here is what we need at this point. We need gently used dresses and shoes and accessories. We have had a good response so far, but with all the publicity we really don’t know what to expect. Most girls will only wear a prom dress once. After that, the dresses just end up in a closet. Let’s put them to good use and help those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend.

Mike

I am a former design engineer who now pastors Cornerstone Community Church in Galax, Virginia. I'm passionate about following Jesus and I love technology. I've been married to Jennifer for 28 years, and we have three adult children.

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1 Response

  1. Kim VA says:

    MIKE!! I was THRILLED when I heard this on KLOVE on my way to work on Friday!!! We listen to KLOVE constantly and I was SO excited, and a little thrown off–because they said Cornerstone Community Church in Carroll Co., I thought that HAS to be our church– to hear them talking about this! We certainly miss our fellowship with Cornerstone, and are really proud and excited about all the awesome things God is doing through the ministry!! 🙂 I wish we were there to help! 🙂

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