HADDAM, Conn. — Story by Caitlin Kukta Haddam-Killingworth High School
For the second year, Julie Wessinger helped high school students' prom dress dreams come true.
With collection bins all around Connecticut she was able to create the second annual free prom dress event.
Hosted in Haddam at the Brainerd memorial library on March 8th, high school students and others were able to attend the event and take home their dream dress for no cost. Shoes and jewelry were displayed for anyone to take and fitting rooms were available to try on the dresses.
Inspired by her close friend Kelly Wagner amen, who unfortunately lost her battle with cancer in 2022, Julie felt that everyone should have the opportunity to feel beautiful, and with the rising cost of prom dresses she hoped that she could make a difference. Julie Wessinger says, “Well my friend passed away and she always loved getting dressed up and i thought what can we kind of do in March to honor her and I said I've always wanted to do a free store so that we can swap things and save families money and so I was like that's perfect it's like prom season and that just inspired it, she gave me the motivation to make it happen”.
With the help of people all around Connecticut she was able to set up collection bins throughout Haddam, Madison, and Middletown receiving over 150 dresses by the event date, with people bringing in more dresses day off.
The event was hugely successful with people donating and finding dresses that were perfect for them.
Anna Wessinger said, “ I loved helping the girls pick out dresses and look through them and try them on they looked like they were having so much fun and it made me so happy I was so excited to be doing it, and like showing people around where the dresses are and showing them what they can have for raffles or anything like that it was so much fun.”
Thanks to Julie Wessinger, prom has become more accessible for many students and the event is planned to continue throughout the coming years. Julie says “It gets us all together doing something, so yeah I love it.”
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