40 homeless students in Chicago attend first-ever prom

ByJoi-Marie McKenzie ABCNews logo
Monday, June 27, 2016
About 40 homeless students in Chicago got the chance to attend their first-ever prom Saturday night.
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CHICAGO -- About 40 homeless students in Chicago got the chance to attend their first-ever prom Saturday night.

"This prom is amazing because I didn't ever go to prom," said Jalisa Thurston, who wore a donated off-white evening gown. "I feel like I'm getting married."

Thurston, 23, told ABC News she never attended her high school prom after being kicked out of school for "some bad choices" and a subsequent pregnancy.

About 40 homeless students in Chicago got the chance to attend their first-ever prom Saturday night.
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Two Chicago-area non-profits - Teen Living Programs Chicago and Sisterhood of the Traveling Heart - helped make it possible. Several local and national organizations offered free tuxedo rentals, hair styling and makeup applications.

"They all looked so nice," Kamelah Muhammad, one of the organizers who came up with the idea, told ABC News. "I thought it would be a great idea to have a prom because every high school student deserves a prom."

Read the full story on ABCNews.com.