By Kristen Shepard
Staff Writer

Each year during prom season, Coppell High School girls are given the opportunity to shine and spend the night looking like a celebrity. However, not everyone is comfortable paying the Hollywood price.

This led CHS English teacher Brynlea Taylor to start Coppell’s Project Prom, a service that rents new and gently used dresses to girls at no cost.

Girls are especially notorious for spending hundreds on making their prom night special. From hair to nails to makeup to shoes, the expenses that contribute to making the night perfect add up quickly. For most girls, the most expensive of the purchases related to prom is the dress. Costing anywhere from $50 to $750, these prom dresses are important in making prom attendees feel like princesses.

As a CHS guidance counselor and mother of three daughters, Mindy McMinn understands the strain placed on girls to look their very best. In fact, she has has gone through the process three times.

“I have three girls who are each a few years apart, and I know how much pressure prom can be,” McMinn said.  “Even with getting a date you know you’ll have a good time with can be stressful enough. Then you have to worry about the hair, the makeup, the shoes and of course, the dress”

McMinn’s youngest daughter Cate graduated from CHS last year, and she noticed that even over the course of sending her daughters through high school, the desire to achieve perfection has become more and more overbearing.

“I applaud Mrs. Taylor for organizing this, because there is a need,” Mrs. McMinn said. “I see so many families that are struggling to make ends meet. The rest of the student body would be shocked. Coppell is such a sheltered town where the fact that these needs exist is ignored. Something as small as renting out a dress can be so impactful and save a lot of money.”

In a town like Coppell, where financial struggle isn’t something that surfaces much within Coppell High School, Taylor saw a need that hadn’t been addressed by any other service in the community before.

“In Coppell, people don’t always see that others are struggling financially. It’s something that can be hidden and may not even be severe,” Taylor said. “It can be hard to come up with several hundred dollars to buy a dress to wear once. You never know a person’s situation. I have met people who live in large houses with little furniture [inside] and things like unemployment happen.”

When Taylor started the organization in 2009, support flowed in quickly. She was able to obtain several dozen dresses from her cheerleaders and female students who had extra dresses they did not wear. Taylor even contacted several dress stores such as Group USA at Grapevine Mills, who donated dresses to Taylor’s cause.

Things weren’t always as easy, however, as Taylor faced trouble in sorting the dresses and gaining awareness.

“When we first got our dresses, I called in some of my cheerleaders to help me sift through what we’d gotten,” Taylor said. “Some of the dresses wouldn’t have worked at all. I had to ask my girls whether they would wear the dresses to make sure that they were reasonable to lend out. I didn’t want to offer dresses that wouldn’t make someone truly happy.”

After facing the daunting tasks of sorting dozens of dresses, Taylor faced the issue of spreading the news. Through a banner, several posters and a shout-out on the daily announcements, Taylor was able to speak with girls who would benefit from the service.

From this moment, Taylor knew that confidentiality would be extremely important.

“I know how uncomfortable asking for help can be,” McMinn said. “It’s not something fun to do and it is so very important that girls feel like they have access to the service without being publicly recognized. [Taylor] works very hard to make sure that girls feel very comfortable in their search for a dress.”

Project Prom isn’t just for those who don’t have the extra money, the service is also useful to girls who would rather save money and look for a more cost effective alternative to retail shopping. It is both practical and economical to rent out a dress and pay for its dry cleaning than to purchase a new dress to wear once.