With prom season starting in a couple of months, teenagers everywhere are starting to plan for the night that is often the epitome of their high school career.
Some girls look forward to the special night years before they even reach high school. The focus is mostly on the beautiful dresses, sparkly shoes, perfect hair and nails, and golden skin. But, beauty comes with a price.
For boys who plan on asking someone to go with, they not only have to think about a tux but also their dates ticket along with a sweet form of transportation. Senior, David Jonikas, took this into consideration when he was planning his senior project.
This time of year, he is beginning to see his peers talk about what they are going to do for prom, what they will be wearing, and who they want to go with. Jonikas also realizes that some are worried about much more than how they will look. Jonikas decided that he wanted to be able to take away some of the costs and stress of the prom season. With the help of Chef Cumberledge he brought Becca’s Closet to Woodland.
“It sort of hit me when I thought about people who can’t have that privilege to even think about buying their own dress,” said Jonikas.
Becca’s closet is a non profitable organization started by Rebecca Kirtman. She also understood that prom season is financially draining time to be a highschool student. Kirtman collected 250 prom dresses and then donated them for free to students who were struggling to fulfill the full expectation of prom. In August of 2003, Rebecca passed away in a car accident but her dream and goals continued to flourish.
States all over the US added a chapter to Rebecca’s closet and continues to contribute to all the energy that she originally invested in. There is no chapter in Connecticut and if our community succeeds in contributing, we will be the first school in Connecticut that has joined the project.
For Jonikas, this project gives him the chance to affect someone’s high school memories.
Jonikas said, “Maybe it’ll be only for a day, but I’ll know that I’ve done something that has changed someone’s life for the better.
Caitlyn is a Staff Reporter at Hawk Headlines, and has spent one full semester at Hawk Headlines. She once bought a betta fish without telling her mom, and describes herself as a "rebellious reporter".
