Although prom has come and gone at Park, students still need to decide what to do with their dresses. Senior Lexi Lee’s dress was taking up space, so when someone asked to buy it, she happily bartered.

“It’s just been in my closet for the year,” Lee said. “But recently someone (direct messaged) me and asked if they could use it for prom this year, so I sold it to them.”

According to Lee, she did not foresee any further need for her prom dress, other than prom night itself.

“It was just an extra dress that I would’ve never used again,” Lee said.

Junior Ellen Poulter said she decided to keep her dress for any purpose that may arise in the future.

“I am probably going to wear it to a few weddings,” Poulter said. “(My friends) are always welcome to borrow a dress if they need one, so it doesn’t just sit in my closet unused.”

The Clothing Closet is a place where students can donate clothing, including prom dresses. According to Clothing Closet adviser Sophia Ross, they accept dresses and provide them to students in need.

“The clothing closet/dress closet started off being a place for students to donate their gently used dresses to the high school. Then in return we would give those dresses to anybody who needed them, no questions asked,” Ross said.

Manager at the Clothing Closet senior Ava Townsend said they work to help students feel welcomed and confident, especially students who are going through hard times financially.

“Having financial troubles is hard enough and it’s important for students to be included, be able to get the help they need to find formal wear and feel good about (themselves),” Townsend said.

According to Ross, the Clothing Closet does not exclusively carry prom dresses as formal wear, they also carry suits after one proactive mom asked if they accept suits.

“We added men’s suits because there was a mom that said ‘oh my god, I have all these suits that don’t fit my kids anymore, can we donate them along with the dress?’ and I was like ‘oh absolutely, that’s a great idea!’ So then it went from dresses (to) dresses and suits,” Ross said.

According to Ross, students are able to stop into the Clothing Closet during third hour Tuesdays through Thursdays in room B222 to donate or pick out clothing.