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As she looked through tables of tiaras, bracelets and earrings Saturday afternoon, 17-year-old Serena Zuniga’s eyes occasionally drifted to the mirrors along a nearby wall.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the flowing red satin dress she’d picked out from among the thousands of free prom dresses that filled a former gym in a Cupertino shopping center, she’d smile.
“It makes me feel amazing,” Zuniga said.
The senior at San Benito High School in Hollister was one of dozens of high school girls who came to the Princess Project of Silicon Valley’s annual prom dress giveaway Saturday, where they received a free dress and a hearty dose of encouragement from local volunteers.
“You will look great in whatever you find because you are amazing, smart, powerful young women, and I want you to remember that all day today,” Jaclyn Schoof, one of the project’s board members, told a group of girls just before they started picking out dresses. “And if you forget, come find me and I will tell you.”
The project started years ago with a group of parents who realized their daughters’ old prom dresses were collecting dust in their closets, while girls from less-wealthy backgrounds worried over how to pay for a dress that might cost hundreds of dollars.
Zuniga lives with her mom, a single mother, and like other girls who joined her Saturday, money to go toward her prom in May is tight.
“I didn’t think about what I was going to wear because I knew it was going to be a stress,” Zuniga said.
Today, the nonprofit collects donated dresses from Bay Area families and local dressmakers, and puts on events to give them away.
“It’s a very expensive thing,” Schoof said of the modern high school prom. “It’s part of American culture — you have to make sure that you’re wearing the right dress and you’ve got the right shoes. And for a lot of these girls a $300 prom dress is all the extra income their parents may or may not have because the cost of living is so high.”
The Princess Project collected about 10,000 dresses for this year’s give-away in Cupertino, which started last weekend and continues Sunday and Tuesday.
“We have long ones, we have short ones,” Schoof told the girls as they got ready to shop. “We have ones that show a little bit in the back, we have ones that may show a little bit too much in the front — but that’s OK, we won’t tell mom and dad.”
After kicking out any parents or other adults who may have come to shop with the girls — to ensure the dress they pick is their choice, Schoof said — each girl joined with a volunteer “fairy godmother.” Clad in pink aprons, the women joined the girls in browsing the racks of flowing floral prints and sequins, then helped them into the dresses so they could try them on and pose for photos in front of an Instagram-ready backdrop.
Each girl also left with an accessory — a pair of shoes or a piece of jewelry — and a coupon for free hair and makeup on the day of their prom.
Schoof buzzed around the room, coordinating volunteers and cheering on girls as they looked for their dresses.
She paused a conversation to call to one girl, “Yes to that silver one — try it on, you will look amazing.”
“Bye girls — enjoy your prom!” she told a group from North Monterey County High in Castroville as they left, holding cupcakes and garment bags bearing their new dresses.
Emma Ashurst, a 16-year-old junior at Marina High School, joined her classmates in ooh-ing and aah-ing to one another as they showed off their selections. Ashurst had been worried about how she would afford her junior prom; she and her dad have been living with their grandmother for the past year after their rent became too expensive.
On Saturday, though, she beamed as she held up the long, blue dress she’d chosen.
“I loved how it fell off my shoulders and fell to the floor,” Ashurst said. “I tried on other ones after, but my eyes were just stuck to this one.”
