Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It's the return of the annual Gowns for Prom event, where students from high schools throughout Western New York have the opportunity to find the ideal gown of their dreams ahead of prom season.
The 16th annual Gowns for Prom event, hosted by Colvin Cleaners, has a new home this year at the Buffalo Convention Center starting Tuesday, April 9 and running through Thursday, April 11 from 3 p.m.-to-7 p.m. ET. This comes after years of hosting the event at Shea's Performing Arts Center on Main Street.
"We had all the dresses onstage, the students got to go up to the fitting rooms where the actors and actresses get ready. And we loved Shea's, they were an incredible partner. We started to outgrow the space a little bit due to the popularity of the program, and going up the elevator to all four floors became a little bit of a bottleneck. So when the dates didn't work out, we reached out to the Convention Center," said Chris Billoni, vice president of Colvin Cleaners. "We do a lot of work with them, and now we're all on one floor. It's a giant room, they built fitting rooms for us so it's very easy to access, and it's going to be a nice, smooth transition. We're super excited. We're finally set up and ready to go."
Once the transition to the Convention Center was in the works, Billoni says it was his employees that stepped up to the plate by starting a committee to come up with a plan for the new space.
"We've had weekly meetings discussing all the logistics. How are we going to get everything here? How are we going to set it up?," Billoni said. "Yesterday, as you know, it was a pretty big deal with the eclipse. We weren't able to get in at all yesterday, downtown was kind of shut down, so we had to set up everything Friday, as well as today."
Once again, this year's event will see an online booking system in place for people to register for their time to explore the gowns available. It was something that started last year coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic that also helps to ensure there's no long lines or a massive influx of people at one time.
"We do have plenty of gowns, we're never going to run out. We've been monitoring the online booking system, and people are signing up for every single time slot, all three days," Billoni explained. "We have, it seems like, more interest than ever before this year, which is sad because we wish everybody didn't have to go to a charity like this. But we don't look at it as a charity. This is going to be an experience."
For students who have registered online, they will have the opportunity to choose from thousands of new or slightly used, and freshly dry cleaned gowns. Also available at Gowns for Prom is an opportunity to also purchase shoes, handbags, jewelry and more.
In addition, those in attendance will be able to enjoy music courtesy of a DJ on-hand, as well as a balloon arch as part of a selfie station.
Over the past 15 years, Colvin Cleaners has distributed more than 17,000 gowns to students during its Gowns for Prom program. Billoni wants to ensure that everyone who walks through the doors at this event is hopefully ensured an awesome time come prom season.
"It's the very end of the school year, you're celebrating with all your friends after a lot of hard work and you want to unwind for a little bit. And a lot of you students, unless you've had a family wedding or something, you've never dressed up like this before. This is like the first time you get to feel like a princess or get all done up and do your hair, find a gown," he said.
In addition, for anyone with any extra gowns that they wish to donate, they can drop them off at this event and the folks at Colvin Cleaners will accept the donation.
"You can always donated at Colvin Cleaners year-round, so even if it doesn't make it into this prom season, we will put it in storage, clean it and get it ready for next year's," Billoni noted. "But every year, we come back with thousands of gowns. We're not the fashion police, we don't know what they're going to select and what the trends are and everything. You'd be surprised what people want to wear. If it didn't get selected this year, it might next year or the year after."
For more information, visit www.gownsforprom.com.
