Palatine High holding prom dress drive

Palatine High School is collecting new and gently used formal dresses for the "Say Yes to the Dress at PHS" program that will help make prom more affordable for students.

Dresses will be collected after the Homecoming and Spring Fling dances at the school, then distributed in the spring, in time for girls to "shop" for prom dresses.

Dresses will be accepted from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 19 to Oct. 30, at the main office at Palatine High School, 1111 North Rohlwing Road, Palatine.

A second dress collection period will be held after the Spring Fling Dance from March 31 to April 4.

"We want this to be a program from which all girls will benefit. No one needs to spend $700 on a prom dress, and we certainly do not want the cost to prohibit anyone from enjoying their prom," said Joyce Richardson, one of the PHS staff members working on the project. "Our goal is to outfit as many girls as possible and use a minimal fee to generate more opportunities in the future for our students to come."

For more information on the program, contact Richardson at jrichardson@d211.org or Lauren Burke at lburke@d211.org.