The COVID-19 pandemic may have prevented Peoria North Rotary Club from hosting its signature service project -- The Prom Closet -- in 2020 and 2021, but our club's Prom Closet Committee has found a way to not only continue serving the needs of high school students seeking formal wear, but has incredibly even grown the reach of the project's impact throughout Arizona.
CDC guidelines, state mandates and the cancellation of high school proms have forced the club to temporarily put a hold on any public Prom Closet events. But Chair Donnis Deever and her committee have still found ways of providing needed service to high school students.
Earlier this year the club began working with the Verde Valley Rotary Club to expand our Prom Closet to the Verde Valley/Cottonwood area. The committee provided Verde Valley Rotarians with a number of dresses and men's formal wear outfits to help them launch a Prom Closet event once schools set a date for prom.
Last month, a school group from Seligman, Arizona contacted Donnis about providing clothing to students in Seligman, a community hit hard by the pandemic. Working with our partners at Landmark Elementary School, several representatives from Seligman visited Donnis at the school to select specific items that were then taken back to Seligman and distributed to students (see photo below).
We have since put the Seligman folks in touch with our Prescott Rotary clubs with the idea of potentially launching a third Prom Closet in Arizona.
Meanwhile, two teachers from Accel School in Phoenix contacted Donnis about providing formal wear for their school's special daytime prom. Accel is a private school for mentally and physically challenged special-needs students. Again, working with our partners at Landmark, Donnis was able to allow the teachers to visit our storage rooms and pick out items to be donated to the students.
The teachers and parents from Accel were incredibly grateful to PNRC for the donation -- and judging by the photos below, the students immensely enjoyed their special prom.
Hats off to Donnis and her committee for finding a way to continue to serve those in need despite the challenges posed by the pandemic!
Students in Seligman select clothing donated by The Prom Closet.