The aptly named Operation Fairy Dust organization, founded in 2001 by then-21-year-old Brooklynite Megan Kerrigan, donates prom gowns to city high school students via upscale "shopping" events.
Having been hooked up in grand style for her own prom, Megan Kerrigan felt strongly about the importance of prom night to high school seniors and dreamed up Operation Fairy Dust to offer that same experience to girls in the city. For the last nine years, the organization has outfitted prom-goers in free dresses -- not pulled from thrift store piles, but showcased during fun, fancy-pants events to kick off the magic of the prom experience -- going up in prices to the thousands and bearing designer labels from Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang and other top names. The girls get personal shoppers to help pick out their dresses, and are offered free alterations by participating drycleaners.
Word has spread about a cause that must undoubtedly strike a chord in the heart of any woman who attended high school, or anyone who gets the significance of feeling like a million bucks for a night (call us corny, but come on, it's true), drawing oodles of donations, including one this year from Kim Kardashian, and spreading out to about 1,700 girls from 80 schools in the five boroughs.
Brooklyn will hold its first Operation Fairy Dust event April 17, for which lucky and deserving senior girls are chosen from city schools (sidebar : leave it to Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz to endear us by supporting the mission to make ladies feel like a "fashion plate" on prom night).
To learn more about Operation Fairy Dust, contact operationfairydustnyc@yahoo.com, or drop donations at Madelaine Cleaners, 1613 Avenue M.
