The dresses have been coming in daily to Zengeler Cleaners – hundreds upon hundreds of prom dresses—long and blue with spaghetti straps, short and made of black velvet with a scalloped neckline, long and black with a lacy overlay.
But the folks who dropped them off will not be returning for them.
The dresses, along with accessories, have been donated by suburban residents and dropped off at Zengeler Cleaners in Deerfield, Libertyville, Northbrook, Northfield, Winnetka, Hubbard Woods and Long Grove.
The 150-year-old company repairs and cleans them and then delivers them to the Glass Slipper Project in Chicago. There, juniors and seniors in high school can choose their prom dress and accessories on three days in April for free—no questions asked. A personal shopper volunteers to guide them with their selections on several days set aside for prom shopping. Any junior or senior in high school with a student ID can come to the prom boutique.
The Glass Slipper Project co-founder Dorian Carter said girls arrive at 3 a.m. to wait outside the door to get in line. Time and again she said she’s heard a girl say “If it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t be able to go to the prom.”
“A lot of these young ladies have never worn a dress,” Carter said. “When they try one on, you can see their posture change.” They stand up taller and they’re hugging and taking pictures with their personal shopper, said Carter who has been operating the non-profit since 1999.
At one of two Zengeler stores in Libertyville manager Barb Geske sorts through all the donations, which come in year-round, but especially in late winter before prom.
“This is really pretty,” she said on a cold February day as she took a long black dress with sequins out of a box. “A lot of girls would wear this,” she said, opening another box that revealed a powder blue dress with matching shawl. “Some of these have lots of frills with a lot of beads. They are very, very fancy. Young girls like the glitzy stuff. People will even go to the store and buy several dress with tags still on and donate them,” she said.
Tom Zengeler, owner of Zengeler Cleaners started collecting prom dresses after a Deerfield customer told him about the Glass Slipper Project in Chicago 10 years ago. “I thought it was a perfect fit– communities helping communities,” Zengeler said.
He only expected the project to last one year. “We didn’t think we’d be able to collect more dresses, but it continued to grow.” The first year, Zengeler received roughly 300 dresses. Last year the business received more than 3,000, which Zengeler said amounted to about $1.6 million in merchandise, repairs and cleaning.
One year, the Deerfield High School sewing club collected dresses and made minor repairs, then delivered them to Zengeler to be cleaned and pressed. This year, students from local high schools including Carmel, Stevenson, Deerfield, Lake Forest and Libertyville are donating dresses or volunteering to help Zengeler in the project.
In March, Zengeler and his staff will deliver the dresses to McCorkle School, 442 State St., in Chicago. The school will serve as a prom boutique 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., April 14, 21 and 28.
Each girl gets a number and works with a personal shopper to help them figure out their dress size and discuss what they’d like. Classrooms are arranged according to sizes.
‘They try the dresses on with their personal shoppers. It’s just like a shopping mall and when they walk out with bags, the girls and the personal shoppers–they’re all smiling,” Zengeler said.
Christie Bradley’s daughter Amber, found the perfect dress at the Glass Slipper Project several years ago. “It was helpful for us to save money,” said Bradley of Chicago. Bradley said she was able to use the money she saved — several hundred dollars– to get Amber’s hair and nails done as well as to save for college. Amber is now studying accounting at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
“It was very exciting,” Bradley said of helping her daughter choose a three-quarters length aqua dress with sheer sleeves. “It was beautiful.”
Dresses and accessories can be dropped off at any of the Zengeler locations. Volunteers are also needed for set up, to serve as personal shoppers. Call Zengeler Cleaners at 847-272-6550 or go to glassslipperproject.org for more information.
