Abby’s Closet founders Abby Egland and her mother Sally. (Photo courtesy of Abby Egland )
By Elizabeth Vogel, Staff Writer -- vogel11@up.edu
Cassie Passon's prom dress is unique for two reasons: one, it doesn't sit in her closet collecting dust. Two, it was free.
"The dress I got for senior prom is my favorite dress and I love it," Passon said. "Anytime there is a formal event I wear it."
Passon, a junior at UP, is one of thousands of girls who have benefited from Abby's Closet, a local non-profit that collects used prom dresses and gives them to high school girls.
The organization started in 2004 when 18-year-old Abby Egland was packing to go to the University of Oregon.
"I was cleaning out my closet, and I got to my prom dresses. I wanted them to go to another girl," Egland said.
Most girls agree that prom dresses are special. Even though it will never be worn by them again, they still want it to go to good use.
"(Abby) didn't want to give it to Goodwill where some guy could pick it up and use it as a Halloween costume and trash it," Passon said.
Abby and her mother, Sally Egland, came up with a solution: why not find a way to give the dress to a girl who needs it and who will cherish it? This idea gained momentum and manifested as Abby's Closet, which is now organizing its seventh annual dress drive.
Egland estimates around 2,500 girls will get prom dresses from Abby's Closet this year.
Abby's Closet takes donations until the giveaway event. Passon is in charge of organizing all the college campus dress drives, including ones at Portland State University, Marylhurst University, Willamette University, Reed College and UP. There is a box in the Moreau Center where prom dresses will be collected until March 25. The Orleans Candle Co. on Lombard also collects dresses year round.
According to Passon, UP students donated 16 prom dresses last year. Having benefitted from the event, she is passionate about the organization and what it does for young women in the Portland community. She encourages girls to donate dresses.
Passon still remembers going to the giveaway in high school.
"It's a really long wait, but it is definitely worth it," she said.
The event is set up like a store, with dresses organized on racks based on size and style. Volunteers are available to help girls find the dress they need. To make sure the girls feel comfortable, all volunteers are women who are out of high school.
"High school girls can't work at the event in order to avoid any ‘she saw me here' issues," Passon said.
Passon was not impressed when she first saw her floor-length black and white gown hanging on the racks she wasn't impressed, but as soon as she tried it on she knew it was the one. She made it work even though it was a bit short.
"I wore flip-flops to prom so it would reach the ground," she said.
Seeing girls find the right dress is one of Egland's favorite things about Abby's Closet. But sometimes, she said, they get dresses that no one believes will find a home. She described one in particular."It was like an eighties floor-length black lace and pink dress," she said. "One of those dresses that we thought was so gross."
Nonetheless, a girl tried it on and fell in love with it. In fact, said Egland, it even looked good.
"When she put it on, half of us started crying," she said.
Egland now works full time at Nike, but she still makes time for Abby's Closet.
"It consumes our lives, especially right now," she said. "It's become part of what I do, so I've worked it in."
Egland describes Abby's Closet as "women helping women," and she hopes that in the future more and more girls will get the whole prom experience from it.
Egland finds the work extremely rewarding.
"You see the girl that picks your dress, and you know it's going to live on with new memories," she said.
Abby's Closet by the numbers This year is the seventh annual giveaway. Last year, about 2,100 girls got prom dresses from Abby's Closet. Last year, UP students contributed 16 dresses.
What You Can Do? Donate your dress to the Moreau Center until Friday or Orleans Candle Co. year round. The dress giveaway is April 2-3 at the Double Tree Hotel near Lloyd Center. Go to abbyscloset.org for more information.
(Photo courtesy of Cassie Passon)
(Photo courtesy of Abbyscloset.org)
