How to Go
What: Mom Prom
When: Friday, May 27
Where: Vineyard Community Church at 4900 Ohio 123, Franklin
Time: 8 to 11 p.m.
Tickets: $20 at the door and $15 in advance. To pre-order tickets, email Cassie Hawkins at forgiven2god@yahoo.com or contact Vineyard Community Church at (937) 746-6569.
FRANKLIN — Lately, Debbie Owens and her girlfriends have been chattering about prom dresses.
Owens, 57, isn’t looking for her daughter or granddaughter — she and her friends are looking for themselves.
A Mom Prom, to be held this Friday in Franklin, will invite local women to dress up in used prom gowns, bridesmaids dresses or thrift store wear and attend a “prom” at Vineyard Community Church. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Auvil family of Middletown. Kevin Auvil died May 10 due to complications from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a scarring of the lung tissue with no known cause. Auvil’s widow, Sandy, is a secretary at a Middletown elementary school.
Owens, of Middletown, is getting geared up for the event.
“(Friends) say, ‘Where did you get the dress?’ or ‘How much did you get it for?’” Owens said. “My age group is all about the dresses.”
Owens purchased her dress for $4.99. Unlike the majority of teenage girls, she just couldn’t justify spending $100 or more.
“I guess the older you get the more resourceful you are,” she said, laughing.
The first Mom Prom was held in Canton, Mich. in 2006 and has since become a national initiative, with local Mom Prom events springing up across the country. Betsy Crapps, the original event’s organizer, was recently featured on NBC’s Today Show.
Cassie Hawkins, 31, of Carlisle, led the planning of Friday’s event, which will boast a live DJ, a prom queen, raffles and an award to the woman with the tackiest dress.
Hawkins said she had no trouble finding a prom dress. While her daughter, an 18-year-old senior at Carlisle High School, covered two states in search of the perfect dress, Hawkins bought one for $14.99 at a nearby Goodwill store.
“Having an opportunity to get out with the girls and have fun in a safe environment is really nice and important to a lot of people,” Hawkins said.
Friday’s Mom Prom — for women only — may also offer a few a second chance.
“Some girls say they never got to go to their high school prom,” Owens noted. “We’ll see what kind of fun we can have.”
Contact this reporter at (513)
705
-
2871
or
asedlak
@coxohio.com.
About the Author