Prom dress giveaway held in Batavia

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Sunday, March 17, 2019
Prom dress giveaway held in Batavia
CHIP IN Batavia's prom dress giveaway aimed to help young women in need.

BATAVIA, Ill. (WLS) -- The Batavia Library was transformed Saturday into a full-service dress boutique - complete with dressing rooms, a seamstress and racks full of hundreds of gowns - as part of prom dress giveaway.

Nonprofit CHIP IN Batavia's prom dress giveaway aimed to help young women in need.

"We've been collecting dresses at the library for eight weeks and this is the one day giveaway. So we invited any girl from any school district to come and shop for free," said Joanne Spitz, co-chair of CHIP IN Batavia.

For the past six years, CHIP IN Batavia has been collecting donated formal dresses and accessories to ease the cost for students and their families.

Thanks to the generosity of donors, CHIP IN Batavia was able to give away more than 600 dresses this year.

On Saturday, students who shopped the racks were thankful to save hundreds of dollars.

"I didn't think that I would find as many dresses as I did and I ended up trying on, I think, six," said junior Yesi Cruz.