PRESTONSBURG— A Hazard-based nonprofit agency is giving disadvantaged eastern Kentucky students the opportunity to have a memorable prom this year.
The Fairy God Foundation will host an open house to give away free prom dresses on April 18 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg.
The event is open to all students who are financially unable to purchase prom dresses.
Michigan residents Stephen Wayne and Kevan Ventura started the non-profit organization in 2005 after they volunteered with the Appalachian Service Project to help repair homes in eastern Kentucky. Wayne said they befriended a woman whose co-worker was having a difficult time purchasing a prom dress for her daughter. They stepped up to help and the Fairy God Foundation was born.
The co-worker’s daughter, Teela Baker, an army soldier living in Maryland, is now 20 years-old.
She remembers how the small gesture of kindness affected her life.
Baker was a junior in a Perry County high school and her mother, a security guard, was struggling to make ends meat. Baker had decided she would just skip her prom.
“I was happy. I was ecstatic,” she said. “I thought it was amazing that these people who didn’t even know us would come all this way so that someone could feel good about themselves for one night.”
Wearing that donated lavender dress changed Baker’s life. She kept in touch with Wayne and Ventura and, after noticing how involved they were with charities, she opened her eyes to a new way of living.
For more information, visit [www.fairygodfoundation.org] or call (606) 587- 3065.
