Cinderella Affair Benefits Girls in Need of Prom Dresses

Making proms affordable and memorable for high school juniors and seniors across Arizona is what the Cinderella Affair is all about.

Select girls get to choose a formal dress from a selection of new and gently-used donated dresses, as well as all of the fun accessories that go along with it like shoes and purses, for free. Last year, the East Valley Women’s League gave away 1,500 dresses to students statewide and more than 11,000 dresses have been handed out since the program’s inception in 2002.

Girls get the opportunity to select five dresses to try on, while volunteers are on hand to help walk them through the process. Volunteer seamstresses are also on site to help make sure the dress fits just right with any last-minute alterations and repairs.

To help promote this year’s Cinderella Affair, students from the East Valley Institute of Technology competed in a design contest to create a plus-size prom dress that will be manufactured for the annual prom-dress giveaway.  Nicole Begay was the winning student designer. AZ Apparel Foundation teamed up with LabelHorde and AZ Fashion Source to provide the technical design, pattern making, prototyping, sourcing, branding and manufacturing for Begay’s final design.

The Cinderella Affair runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays, March 25, April 1 and 8 at 411 N. McKemy in Chandler at The Cinderella Affair Boutique.

Founded by two sisters, Tara Stainton and Tracy Worischeck, East Valley Women’s League  helps women and children in need through events like the Cinderella Affair, as well as Packing for Success (backpacks for students), Kids in Transition (support for foster kids) and Homebound Women (gifts and friendship for elderly women in the East Valley) www.evwl.org.

Details: www.cinderellaaffair.org.