All the Prom Dresses and Nowhere to Go… The Story of a Young Lady That Will Touch Your Hearts!

Jaden Koruba (L)

By Stacy Koruba

My daughter Jaden attended her Junior Prom in April of 2019. Like many high school teens, she was filled with excitement about this magical tradition she had spent so many years hearing about and looking forward too. It was a high school milestone, bringing her closer to graduation and adulthood, and the first night she got to dip her toes into that life.

Shopping for the perfect dress, making plans with her date and friends about what to do before and after. Getting her hair and nails done, posing for all the photos beforehand and finally, going out, on her own without parental supervision to develop her social skills in a formal setting and celebrate her accomplishments. Her experience was wonderful, one she was grateful for. She had expressed concern over the cost several times during the planning of and then again after, commenting on how expensive it all was, and how many people did not have the opportunity to go. In June 2020 she decided that she wanted to try to start collecting gently worn dresses for teens that were in the foster care system. Jaden was in the system herself before we adopted her, and it really weighed heavy on her heart that many girls would not be able to attend due to the cost. Her goal was to get 75 dresses and she began advertising on Facebook and community next-door websites. We were not prepared for what happened next.

By August she had collected over 75 dresses. The community really got involved and people were contacting her almost daily to have us come pick them up. A newspaper heard about what she was doing and wrote an article about it and the following week she was interviewed by ABC 15 Arizona News. Once that hit the air, she was getting more donations than we knew what to do with! The story began circulating in other states and we started getting boxes full of dresses delivered from all over. By this time everything became too overwhelming for one 17-year-old young woman to handle alone. She teamed up with the #LoveUp Foundation, an organization that helps foster kids and they were able to put her in touch with a local woman who began collecting prom dresses for teens years ago in honor of her Mother, who grew up in an orphanage. When her Mom had passed away, she had found a note saying that she wanted something good done in her name for girls in the system, something to make them feel loved. The store agreed to take in all the dresses Jaden was collecting, which was perfect because after all the news coverage our house started to look like a warehouse for a bridal shop.

Plans were made to deliver 500 donated dresses by Jaden to the shop on March 13th, 2020. The shop owner was then going to have a few weekend events where foster girls could come in and try on dresses to pick out their dream one. There were many beautiful choices available in every size and style. Jaden was thrilled be able to play a part in so many girls dreams of being able to attend prom. Due to Covid-19, the shop closed its doors on March 12th. Jaden still held out hope that proms would take place and Covid would go away. As we all know, there were no proms in 2020. I highly doubt there will be proms in 2021. In the meantime, I have 500 dresses stored in my 2 extra bedrooms, all my closets and any extra space I have in my house. I hope someday a magnificent prom can be thrown for all the classes that missed their big day. I am so proud of the steps she took to try and help other young girls. Her act of kindness makes my heart swell with love. Her compassion for others in need was a beautiful thing to witness and I saw her connecting with so many other wonderful people in the community who were lending a helping hand and doing random acts of kindness themselves while strengthening the community at the same time. While she may not be able to finish what she started right now, I know she will complete this fantastic mission one day, and on that day many girls will feel the same hope, excitement and love Jaden felt while working on this project.

Watch the video that ABC15 did on Jaden by clicking HERE.

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