The Four Corners Upper School Sorority girls spent their Saturday afternoon helping girls get ready for the first dance of the year with their Cinderella Closet project.
On October 5th the Sorority opened the closet doors to students who needed a dress for Homecoming and allowed them to shop around for dresses they could wear to the event. The project came from an old club and has been of help to many girls who are not able to afford dresses for events.
“The idea sparked because Ms. Fendone and the girls had done it before covid, but now that we have this big group of girls, I thought it would be great for us to take over and make it our Cinderella Closet,” Sorority Girls Advisor Ashley Sanchez said.
Sanchez also explains how her purpose and involvement with the project resulted from her personal experiences in high school and school dances.
“When I went to Homecoming and Prom, my mom couldn’t afford to have my makeup and my hair done. So when I had my Prom I went to Sephora, and they used to have free eye services or free skin, and you could have one or the other done for free. That’s what I did, so I thought why don’t we do that here,” Sanchez said.
Although the Closet is being launched right before Homecoming with the goal to supply girls with their Homecoming dress, President Isabela Hemenway affirms that the closet will be open all throughout the year so that girls have access to these pieces whenever they need.
“We are going to try to have the set up [makeup and hair] for all the events so middle school formal, winter dances, and maybe even graduation. If any girl needs a dress for some out of school event they are 100% welcome in the closet. We have countless dresses, and any girl could come in here and get one if needed,” Hemenway said.
Together with the dresses, the club is also putting on a glam station where the girls were able to get makeup, hair and nails done by student volunteers.
“We posted on Schoology ‘if anybody wants to do hair and makeup, come on out and say I’m in’ and they came on down. We even had Rihana’s sister, she is a cosmetologist, and she was able to help us out,” Sanchez said.
In the process of organizing the launch of the Cinderella Closet the club was able to partner with some business and people in the beauty field who helped them when offering the ‘whole package’.
“ We offered hair, makeup, and nail services. We got a few nails done by Chasmeri‘s sister, Angelina, she got her appointments set up through Instagram on our school’s page and I’m pretty sure she’s done about five girl’s nails which is really good cause girls really wanted to get their nails done,” Hemenway said.
Other local businesses found out about the project and acted in donating some materials to make the ‘princess’ treatment even more special.
“One of my friends from high school owns a spa called Phoenix Spa and she donated some dresses, makeup products and hair products. She also went to a small business convention and talked to other small businesses to help as well and they donated more products too,” Sanchez said.
Freshman Bella Garcia was one of the girls who volunteered for this first event, and she shares her excitement as she’s looking forward to helping other girls get ready for future events.
“As far as I know we might be doing another Cinderella Closet in the winter for the middle school dance and I’m looking forward to helping around with that as well,” Garcia said.
Most of the dresses were donated by the Sorority members like Garcia who sought to make the homecoming experience a little bit more magical.
“I donated dresses as well as some makeup products and I spent the day greeting girls and welcoming them in. I also organized the closet when I got here, just to make it nicer and easier for the girls,” Garcia said.
The club hopes to get more popular and reach girls who need assistance through the Cinderella Closet.
“Obviously, this is our first one [event] but we will for sure do this again and we are hoping the girls will get more familiar and see how good of a job our volunteers do and we will go from there, “Sanchez said.
