Lakewood Ranch student helps classmates primp for prom

LAKEWOOD RANCH — As a child, Samantha Hyatt loved to play dress up.

Whether she was competing in a beauty pageant or walking around her bedroom, she was most comfortable in a fancy dress, her mother, Pam, remembers.

Today, the 18-year-old, who has been a Girl Scout for 13 years, incorporates her passion for fashion into helping others.

To ease the financial burdens of prom for students and to satisfy a requirement for her Girl Scout Gold Star Award application, the Lakewood Ranch High senior introduced a new take on recycling to her school: a dress-sharing program, named Primping for Prom and Pageants.

It allows students to donate their old formal gowns so other students can rent them for free.

“Sam has always loved wearing pretty dresses and working with others,” Pam Hyatt said. “So this project was perfect for her. Finding a way to incorporate both of those things was really special.”

The idea for the project was born when Hyatt noticed a decrease in participation in prom and the Miss Lakewood Ranch pageant — a beauty pageant for freshmen, sophomores and juniors that requires various outfits and a formal gown for participation. Hyatt, who took part in both events, thought the lower turnouts were because of the harsh reality that looking “like a million bucks” might as well cost $1 million, she said.

 “I’d heard from so many girls that they couldn’t afford to go to prom,” Hyatt said. “When I went out looking for gowns to wear to my junior prom last year, I really noticed how expensive they were. And no girl should miss prom because she can’t afford something to wear.”

With prom approaching May 1, Macie French’s classroom, where the 10 dresses are located, has been bustling with girls interested in browsing their options.

Girls will receive their dresses the week of prom and must return them the week after the event.

With options that range in color, style and size, Hyatt believes all dresses will be rented by prom day.

She also brings the dresses to the band classroom and other rooms throughout the school to showcase the gowns to students and gauge girls’ interest.

So far, students don’t seem embarrassed by the idea of wearing someone else’s dress; they are excited about the opportunity to attend a dance they otherwise couldn’t afford, Hyatt added.

“Girls approach me and say they’re much more likely to go to prom now that they know they’ll have one of the main things they’ll need — a dress,” Hyatt said.

For Hyatt, creating the project was a way to answer a community need that will allow her to receive the highest honor in Girl Scouts: the Gold Star.

To meet one of the criteria for receiving the honor, she wrote an essay addressing the program and how it helps her community. Hyatt, one of two girls in her troop to receive the award, expects she’ll have the Gold Star by May.

Next year, French will continue the program, which Hyatt hopes will become a staple of prom at the school.

Hyatt joined Girl Scouts in kindergarten under the leadership of her mother, who was also a Girl Scout as a child.

Pam Hyatt is her troop leader today, and she’s proud of her daughter’s execution of the project, she said.

“To see her grow through Girl Scouts, and all the skills she’s learned along the way, has just been amazing,” Pam Hyatt said.
“This project and her years working as part of a team and other life skills really prepared her for college and to live a full and happy life.”

Contact Amanda Sebastiano at [email protected].