{"id":4575,"date":"2015-06-26T15:40:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T14:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4575"},"modified":"2015-06-26T15:40:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T14:40:17","slug":"you-shall-go-to-the-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4575","title":{"rendered":"You shall go to the ball!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Although school balls and discos have long been part of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cultural landscape, since the noughties, the much more extravagant US-style prom has captured the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imagination.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMore than 85 per cent of schools in Britain hold school proms, which range from no-frills dinners in school halls to tailor-made extravaganzas in five-star hotels with such extras as ice- cream vans and photo booths,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the Telegraph<\/em> noted in 2012<\/a>, with the Guardian reporting this year that the industry rakes in about \u00c2\u014180m.<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clear money-maker for businesses, but for the families of teenage boys and girls up and down the country, prom can be insurmountably expensive.<\/p>\n

 
\nProm dresses are often the costliest item of the glitzy rite of passage \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the average price of a prom dress runs in the hundreds of pounds.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs the mother of a teenage daughter and with prom season now in full swing, Angela Appleby, who helps run a Unite community clothing bank in Durham had an idea.<\/p>\n

 
\nShe suggested in a meeting that they put out a call for prom dresses to give an opportunity to teenage girls who might otherwise be unable to attend what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often a prohibitively expensive event \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the response was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe thought we might get maybe 10 or 15 dresses, but we ended up with 70,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Appleby said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd even more than that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a local bridal shop pitched in with formal wear for boys, as well as other prom accessories.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe clothing bank decided to loan all the prom items free of charge, so that girls and boys can benefit from their offerings for years to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"prom<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne of the first youngsters who came in and tried a dress, we of course asked her to show us,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Appleby said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bShe looked so lovely; I was literally moved to tears.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAppleby added that the uptake has been very good.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have parents coming in with their teenagers and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all loved it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really pleased that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done this,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Appleby added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHaving a teenage daughter of my own, I know how much pressure teenagers are under these days. Prom has really become a very big deal in this country. It can be so expensive, and even though there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no malice intended, it must be awful, you know, for kids whose families don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the money and so feel excluded.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very proud that our clothing bank has, in our own small way, been able to help.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFind out more about the clothing bank by visiting the Durham Community Support Centre blog here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although school balls and discos have long been part of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cultural landscape, since the noughties, the much more extravagant US-style prom has captured the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imagination.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMore than 85 per cent of schools in Britain hold school proms, which range from no-frills dinners in school halls to tailor-made extravaganzas in five-star hotels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[232],"wps_subtitle":"Unite clothes bank makes prom dreams come true ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4578,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4575\/revisions\/4578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}