Feel ‘like a million bucks’

Shanna Omer was almost 17 when she went with friends to look for a dress to wear to junior prom. They browsed in Anchorage and then, in Eagle River, Omer found exactly what she wanted.

“The one I found in the store was green velvet with a white lace bolero on top of it,” she said. “It was a long dress with long sleeves and a slit up the side. I liked how it made me feel. I felt pretty.”

Then she saw the price: $400.

“I was just like, ahh,” Omer said. “I kept thinking about it all week — I can’t afford that with my savings or even parents’ help. I couldn’t ask them for that much. I had a job for awhile at McDonald’s and then just odd jobs, babysitting, stuff like that. I played softball and I swam, so it was kind of hard working around a regular job schedule. That price tag was the dealbreaker.”

Omer thought about that dress and she and her mother even returned to look at it.

“She said it was kind of expensive, maybe we can make something similar to it, find something similar,” Omer said. “I was OK with that because the sticker price was so high. If i could make something just as nice, I was OK not spending all that money.”

Omer, who now oversees Palmer High School’s four-member chapter of the nonprofit Family, Career and Community Leaders of America, is launching a prom dress drive aimed at helping teenaged girls better afford the cost of wearing something beautiful to their own proms.

The event is scheduled for Nov. 8-Dec. 10 and the dresses will be sold at the school sometime in February or March. People may bring dresses that are in good or better condition, as well as accessories, to PHS’s Room 202, or call Omer at 746-8400 for more information. The FCCLA members will be offering mending, hemming and simple alterations for a minimal fee.

Part of the proceeds will go to the Alaska Family Resource Center; the rest of the money will benefit Palmer High’s FCCLA program.

“I was hearing girls in my classes talking about how hard it is to find prom dresses and thought this might be a good way for girls to find something new for a cheaper price,” Omer said.

Omer said she remembers her cousins having numerous formal dresses they’d only worn once.

“Now people can reclaim the closet space,” she said. “I’m hoping to give girls a chance to feel glamorous and not feel stressed about budgets, stuff like that. I know we have problems with the economy right now. This is an opportunity to find a dress that makes them feel beautiful without having to break the bank. That’s my goal.”

Omer remembers going to Joann Fabric and finding dark-blue velvet and a pattern for a dress almost identical to the $400 concoction she’d seen in the store, at a cost of less than $100. Her mother spent four weeks sewing the dress and white-lace bolero jacket.

“I was thrilled, and it was neat because I got to pick the velvet I wanted it to be made out of,” Omer said.

Omer had shoes dyed to match her dress and borrowed earrings and a sapphire diamond pendant necklace from her grandmother. She and her friends picked out hairstyles they wanted to do — she chose an updo, which looked better with a long-sleeved dress and had it done at Noel’s Hair Salon. One of her father’s coworkers from Butte Elementary — a woman who sold Mary Kay cosmetics — applied her makeup.

Omer and her date, a boy from Chugiak High School, ate out with friends at Peking Garden and then went to prom in the gym at Palmer High.

“That was when the proms couldn’t be outside the boundaries of Palmer,” Omer said. “I was so excited. It felt good I didn’t have to spend all that money. No one could tell it was homemade. I kept telling everyone, yep, my mom made my dress. I’d never gotten all gussied up like that before. I felt like a million bucks.”