Fairfield Residents Help South Bronx Teens Say Yes to the Dress!

Fairfield Supports the Cinderella Project in the South Bronx

Teens and their Parents Seek Prom Dresses for Others in Need

 A group of teen girls and their parents from this suburban community have come together in an effort they call the Cinderella Project, so that 1,000 of their peers in the South Bronx can “go to the ball.” The Fairfield group is collecting gently used prom dresses from their friends and family, with the goal of giving them to teen girls at the South East Bronx Neighborhood Center.

“Our goal is to collect 1,000 dresses by May 25, so we can distribute them—for free— at a pop-up boutique we’re setting up at the community center on May 27,” said Anne Tack, president of Fairfield-based Tack Writers, a grant-writing consultancy that has worked with the center for years.

“The girls who receive our dresses don’t have the money to buy prom outfits. The southeast Bronx is the poorest Congressional district in our country,” she explained. “Some of the girls we serve come from group homes—they used to be called orphanages—which means that through death, illness or other family distress, they have no parents to care for them, much less buy them prom dresses. That’s where we come in.”

The Cinderella Project of the Southeast Bronx was born in 2012, when Tack got a call from Clyde Thompson, director of community affairs at the nonprofit center, which offers afterschool and summer camp programs to youth that New York City borough. He had received a plea from girls at a local group home who wanted to attend their prom but couldn’t afford fancy dresses. A little research led Tack to the Long Island Volunteer Center, which had been sponsoring its own free prom boutique for the past 20 years. The executive director there, Diana O’Neill, offered to supply dresses for the South Bronx project.

Since then, Tack has enlisted the help of her friends in Fairfield and their daughters, who in turn have reached out to friends and family for donations of gently used finery. Each year, on a Saturday in May, the mother-daughter teams have traveled to the community center, set up a boutique and helped their “customers” find the perfect dress. Last year, they gave out 800 prom dresses.

“The girls were lined up by the hundreds around the block last year,” said Tack, whose husband Jim Eckel and daughter Emma have helped her with the project since its inception. “This year, we expect to help girls from 15 or more different public, charter and private schools in the Bronx.”  

The Fairfielders who have gotten involved in the project have found it as rewarding as the recipients of the dresses—especially those who worked at the pop-up boutique.

“To see their eyes light up when they found their dresses was spectacular,” said Lynn Schuster, a teacher who volunteered for the project with her daughter Lauren. They are organizing a dress collection project at the school where Lynn teaches.

“It was so rewarding helping the girls find their perfect dress for their important day!” said Nancy Tavolacci, who is working on the project again this year with her kids; her daughter Isa and Isa’s friend Victoria Hermsen will help sort and size the donations, while her son Peter is helping plan the layout and traffic flow of the boutique.

Members of the business community are also helping out. Mary Perkins of Dress Code in Westport donated more than 100 dresses, and Carolee New York, the jewelry brand, has also committed to helping this year, thanks to Fairfielder Yamini Lal.

Tack’s daughter Emma and her friend Grace Ludlow are eloquent spokeswomen for the group when they explain why they participate: “To be born into a family in Fairfield is a privilege,” said Grace. “We kind of feel it’s our duty to help girls who are not as lucky as we are,” said Emma.

“The high school girls in our area work so hard—sometimes against all odds—and stay in school and graduate,” said the center’s community affairs director and Cinderella Project co-founder Thompson. “We here at the center, the Prom Boutique and my Fairfield superstar women and their girls are blessed to be of assistance in providing these young South Bronx women with the recognition they deserve—and the chance to dance at their prom!”

The Cinderella Project is accepting gently used fancy dresses, shoes, purses and jewelry. Call (917) 969-2943 for details on how to donate.