AMHERST - The inspiration is a strapless yellow dress with turquoise, blue and green sequins.
The prom dress, about four years old, also comes with a shawl and will soon be up for grabs through Prom Pal 2010.
Sylvia McKoy, a student in office administration at the Nova Scotia Community College Cumberland campus, came up with Prom Pal 2010 for a class.
"The inspiration was my daughter's dress because it sat in the box for so long," McKoy said. "It takes a while for a girl to let her dress go, and it's such a shame because these dresses are only worn for a few hours and still in good shape. It's a good way to give back to the community and I'm encouraging the communities to do so as well."
Prom Pal 2010 takes in old prom dresses and puts them back into the community.
"We're asking the community to donate their used prom dresses," said McKoy, adding a lot are just sitting in closets or boxes.
In February, those donated dresses will be modelled for everyone in the county to see and for two days following the show, the dresses will be made available to the public at a fraction of the original price.
"These ladies will feel good about themselves for donating these dresses especially because they know they'll look great on someone else as well," McKoy said.
All proceeds from the dress purchases will go back into that dress's community's safe grad activities.
Prom Pal was created for McKoy's business project planning course, taught by Peggy Carter.
"This is an excellent service learning project," Carter said, noting one of the premises for the project was that it had to be not-for-profit. It also had to keep in the lines of going green.
"This meets the criteria and to have the proceeds go specifically for safe grad, it's an excellent way to give back," Carter added.
The fashion show is scheduled for Feb. 2 between 6 and 8 p.m., at the Susan Taylor Theatre at Amherst Regional High School. Dresses will be available at the Cumberland campus' learning centre in Amherst for two days following the show, where they can also be tried on.
Anyone looking to donate their dress can contact McKoy at prompal2010@gmail.com. Arrangements can be made for pick-up, or they can be dropped off at the Salvation Army in Amherst.
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