Prom gowns give girls a 'magical night'

Danielle Hinchey remembers the 1943 Bronxville High prom as such a magical night that she had hoped it would lead to the altar.

Her family had moved to the New York suburb two years before to escape the war that surrounded their native Switzerland. She wore a white gown, ''plain but nice."

''I was ready, but he was not," said Hinchey, 82. ''I saw him not so long ago, and we still correspond."

Hinchey's daughter, Teri Anapol, didn't stay in touch with her date from the 1965 high school prom in Middlebury, Vt. But for her, the magic of that night was more the prom itself than whom she was with.

''I loved it," she said. ''In many ways, I think proms are really more for the girls than the boys."

This year, Hinchey and Anapol have teamed up as fairy godmothers to make sure that local girls don't miss out on their proms for lack of gowns.

''The kids who can't do anything else should at least get to go to the prom," said Anapol, who lives in Stow. ''There are things that kids remember from their high school years, and the prom is one of them. There are some things you only get one chance at."

Anapol's daughter and two sons are Nashoba Regional High graduates. Three years ago, while Anapol was the head of the Nashoba Parent-Teacher Support Group, she was walking through the high school with her son, Jonathan, then a junior.

''My son said, 'Hey, Mom, see that kid over there? He didn't get one thing for Christmas,' " Anapol recalled. She then talked to Diane Haarmann, director of guidance at the high school, who told her that even at Nashoba Regional, which serves the mostly affluent exurbs of Stow, Bolton, and Lancaster, some children live on the edge of poverty. That year, Haarmann told her, instead of buying each other gifts, members of the high school guidance staff had pooled their money to buy a tank of heating oil for one destitute family.

''The need is much greater than people think," Anapol said. ''I couldn't sleep when I found out how many kids at Nashoba were in need. One woman said to me, 'There are no poor people in Bolton.' I said, 'There are poor people everywhere.' "

In 2004, Anapol started a program called Holiday for High Schoolers, and solicited donations and gifts for youths who otherwise would go without. While working with the school nurses on the gifts program this year, Anapol was told that some students could not afford to attend the junior prom.

''With the gown and everything else, it's $500 now to go to the prom, $70 just for the ticket," Anapol said. ''I think that's outrageous and unfair."

Anapol's daughter, Rebecca, who is to graduate from the University of Massachusetts School of Nursing this month, mentioned to her mother that she still had two gowns in her closet. ''It was really my daughter's idea," Anapol said. ''She said, 'It's a shame. I have a dress I haven't even worn -- and a prom dress.' "

Anapol then asked around and found that many of her friends had gowns in their homes that they would be willing to donate to girls who otherwise could not afford to go to Nashoba's prom, which is to be held tomorrow night.

''We just decided to do it," Anapol said. ''And it's really been wonderful."

Anapol said she first asked churches in Bolton and the high school if they could host the prom dress giveaway, but they all declined because of a lack of space. So she enlisted the aid of her 82-year-old mother, a woman who stands not even 5 feet tall but has a heart the size of Mount Wachusett.

Hinchey lives in Clinton and is chairwoman of the thrift shop that benefits the town's hospital. She and her daughter solicited nearly 50 ''gently used" prom dresses through notices in local newspapers. Brite Kleen in Bolton and Clinton Cleaners cleaned the donated gowns for free. Mr. Tux in the Solomon Pond Mall in Berlin donated coupons for discount tuxedo rentals for the guys.

Soon, beautiful pink and white and blue-spangled gowns were hanging in the thrift shop windows above the knick-knacks, and ironing boards, and lamps for sale.

Hinchey said more than 20 girls from Nashoba, Clinton, and Leominster high schools picked out gowns at the Clinton Hospital Thrift Shop. Anapol said girls from Hudson and Marlborough high schools might also have come in for dresses.

''We didn't ask any questions. We just wanted them to come in and get a gown," Anapol said. ''Some were real Cinderella gowns. One of the school nurses at Nashoba, Migdalia Tennyson, told me one girl came rushing into her office and was so excited she just blurted out, 'I got the most beautiful prom dress.' The nurse ''said it brought tears to her eyes."

The thrift shop opened up two extra days during school vacation and also one Sunday so girls could try on the gowns. Hinchey said she worries that going into a thrift shop to get a gown might carry a ''stigma" for some of the girls, and she wants to move the program next year. Anapol is not so sure.

''The ladies there are so wonderful," she said. ''They are all senior citizens and really want to make everything nice."

No matter next year's location, Anapol and Hinchey agree the prom dress program was a success, and they'll do it again. They still have more than 25 donated dresses.

''People have been very generous," Hinchey said.