A young pharmacist from Saint-Henri de Lévis has collected nearly 250 prom dresses which will be offered free of charge to graduating students who do not have the financial means to purchase one.
Marie-Pier Falardeau and her team at the Familiprix pharmacy in Saint-Henri are organizing a shopping day on April 27 to pay it forward prom dresses, some of which have never been used before.
“We want to reward their efforts and academic success by allowing them to have a dream prom day. In addition, we want to offer them a little help to alleviate the stress and financial burden of this day,” she explains, specifying that the dresses will only be given to graduates who are in a difficult financial situation.
In the inflationary economic context, many parents and teenagers may fear the bill that comes with the event long awaited by young graduates. The price can sometimes go into the four figures.
Marie-Pier Falardeau collected more than 250 prom dresses, with the aim of offering them to less fortunate teenage girls, during a shopping session on April 27.
Photo Stevens LeBlanc
“Paying for a prom dress is not always in the budget,” emphasizes the pharmacist.
Mme Falardeau surrounded herself well, as she received new dresses from certain boutiques. She also received dresses she calls “the 2020 dresses,” which were never worn due to proms being canceled during the pandemic.
A generosity that surprises
The Lévis Convention Center also pitched in by offering one of its rooms for the shopping session, scheduled for April 27.
She didn’t expect so much generosity.
“It took on big proportions, we didn’t think we would go to the Lévis Convention Center or have so many dresses,” she enthuses.
What surprises the pharmacist and her team is the very small number of requests received for the dresses to date. In three weeks, only around ten graduates registered for the shopping session.
“We have great difficulty informing graduates of our existence. We wrote to all the public schools in Quebec, Lévis and Bellechasse, as well as many organizations. We got very few responses,” she is surprised.
The event will return next year, and graduation clothes for young men will be added to the offering.
A Facebook page – called Bal-A-Dons – was created to register for the event and learn about the terms and conditions for the shopping day.