Beginning next year, Watkins Mill High School will hold a formal dress drive for female students who do not have the means to buy their own prom dresses. 

Special education teachers Shelley Miller, Christen Reeves and Keri Ludwig came up with the idea for the drive. Miller said the drive will include anything students need for a formal occasion, not just prom. They decided to start asking teachers, parents, the community and practically everybody, for any extra dresses and formalwear to donate. 

The dresses and shoes will be available in all sizes. “We want to make sure that we have enough variety and sizes too so that it is fair for everybody,” Reeves said. Dresses will range from short to long and come in a variety of colors.

The dresses will only be available to WMHS students. All dresses and accessories will be on a first-come, first-serve basis to borrow for any special occasions and events. Students will need to sign out the dresses to borrow with their school ID number. There will be no charge. 

“This is an awesome effort to give back to the community and the students and make an opportunity for the girls to have a wonderful night and look great at it,” assistant principal Charles Feamster said.

They began collecting dresses this spring, hoping to continue for the rest of this year and the beginning of next year for next year’s prom or homecoming. So far they have collected approximately 40 dresses and are still collecting. 

Feamster is proud of the teachers’ effort and said it, “signified the commitment and passion the teachers have here for the students.”

For this year’s prom, five dresses were lent out to students. “It felt good to see the kids’ faces when they were looking through the dresses,” Reeves said.

The prom dress drive “made the young ladies feel good about themselves, and have an opportunity to enjoy a night we all want to cherish for the rest of our lives,” Feamster added.