Mom Proms: Where good things come from bad dresses - The Detroit News |
- Mom Proms: Where good things come from bad dresses - The Detroit News
- Teen's Grandfather Dresses Up to Take Prom Photos With Her - Inside Edition
- Does This Dress Make Me Look Guilty? - The New York Times
- SEE IT: Emilia Clarke dresses as 'Game of Thrones’ co-star Kit Harington and chats with unsuspecting New Yorke - New York Daily News
- Dubuque Senior student council giving away Prom dresses ahead of dance - KCRG
| Mom Proms: Where good things come from bad dresses - The Detroit News Posted: 26 Apr 2019 09:32 AM PDT Betsy Crapps will tell you she doesn't deserve the credit for Mom Prom. She says the idea came from the Holy Spirit, and she was just sort of singing along. What this suggests is that No. 1: Crapps is probably too modest, and No. 2: the Holy Spirit likes to shake it down. The original Mom Prom in 2006 was Crapps and 11 friends from Canton Township, going to dinner at a Buca di Beppo in their ghastly prom and bridesmaid dresses and then overrunning a dance club in Plymouth. Shimmy forward 13 years, and Mom Prom has been featured in newspapers in France and Kuwait and on the Australian version of "Today." A screenwriter is shopping a Mom Prom script to producers, and someone else is talking up a docu-series. "Every so often, it hits me," Crapps says. The microphones, the cameras, the friendships, the good causes: "Do I realize what's happening?" Crapps expects 120 Mom Proms to rock ballrooms and church basements in 39 states, Canada and possibly Guam — with every giddy, goofy one of them raising money for charity. How much money is a difficult question to answer, almost as difficult as "Why do women hold on to horrendous old dresses?" The year's take for Mom Prom beneficiaries will be well into six figures. As for the grand total, from all the proms and all the moms with their poufy purple gowns since 2007, $3 million is probably low. Among the things that tells you: There are a lot of good and whimsical women in this great land. There are even more bad dresses. The 14th incarnation of the original Mom Prom — the mother ship, if you will — was April 13 at Fellows Creek Golf Club in Canton Township. That was the same night as Mom Proms in South Lyon and East Tawas, and also Saratoga, New York; Williamsport, Pennsylvania; Marysville, Washington; and Appleton, Wisconsin. The first incarnation of the Brighton Mom Prom, meantime, will be May 18 — the same night as Stanton, Michigan, Seattle and Fredericksburg, Virginia — and the basics will be identical. Fun. Frivolity. Rampant dancing. Advil. No men, unless they're working or you count the cardboard cutouts of movie stars at the photo booth. Awards for outrageous hair, tackiest dress, maybe most glamorous. The crowning of a queen, decided at Crapps' proms by a combination of luck of the draw and the rolls of huge pink dice. There are mother-of-the-groom dresses, borrowed dresses, Salvation Army dresses. One year, Crapps says, a woman who could no longer fit into her prom or bridesmaid dresses sewed the two of them together. Easy winner. This year, a Ford engineer who uses a wheelchair rocked and rolled all night, and so did a newcomer who didn't know a single other guest. Fellows Creek provided appetizers and bartenders, and Nina Smithpeters of Canton Township baked 16 dozen cupcakes in six flavors, no charge. Smithpeters, 65, spent four days in the kitchen, then three hours on the dance floor. "I am a Bon Jovi girl," she says. And for those who aren't? Those whose preferences, rather than their boogie-impaired husbands, are what always keep them in their seats? No problem. "If you don't want to dance," Crapps says, "you can just sit and make fun of the gowns." Prom with a purpose The former Betsy Paulsen, 49, has moved from Canton Township to South Lyon since starting the Mom Prom revolution. She has three kids, a rescue mutt named Buster and enough of a sense of humor that she didn't even consider keeping her maiden name. Once a Brother Rice High School history teacher, Crapps is the director of faith formation at St. Thomas a'Becket Catholic Church in Canton Township, where Mom Prom moved in 2007 when it occurred to her that hilarity could serve a higher purpose. Eighty women paid $10 apiece to dance in the gym that year, and she passed along $800 to a homeless shelter. Two Saturdays ago at Fellows Creek, 180 guests paid $40, and after writing checks for the DJ, photo booth and hall, she gave $4,000 to the Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan. One Mom Prom in Virginia raised $80,000 for a children's hospital. Crapps has considered moving hers to a casino and shooting for 2,000 paying customers but ultimately decided to keep things simple. "I feel like my gifts are in helping set them up," she says. In Brighton, for instance, Carrie Hastings is trying to create Prelude Home, a residence for divorced or otherwise displaced women. Her daughter suggested a prom for moms, and Hastings wound up connecting with Crapps. "We didn't know Mom Prom existed," says Hastings, until Google told her so. "I love what you're doing," Crapps told her. "Please feel free to use our name." "Mom Prom" has been trademarked since 2011 and is a registered 501(c)(3). The board members are Crapps, her sister-in-law and her husband, Wally, whom she met when they were sophomores at Notre Dame. She can't recall her official title and nobody takes a salary, which makes sense since there's no income. The cost to employ the Mom Prom name is zero, and the requirements are simple: sign the trademark and licensing agreement, use the pink-and-purple logo and give the proceeds to charity. A sensible male friend advised Crapps years ago to charge a $100 licensing fee. She declined. Many of the proms are personal to the promoter, and they become personal to Crapps as well. "I'm not going to charge money," she says, "to a woman whose son has brain cancer." Hastings' nonprofit was inspired by her tailspin after a divorce seven years ago when she was 50. She found a "Dynasty"-worthy black dress at a thrift shop and hopes to sell 300 tickets to her prom at Mt. Brighton Ski Area for $40 each. She had printed her fliers before she found out Mom Prom was someone else's baby. Chastened, she offered to re-do them with the logo. Crapps drove her usual hard bargain. "Don't waste your money," she said. An idea is born Depending on how deep you want to dig, Mom Prom's roots go back to either the passing of Crapps' father 20 years ago or a friend's Oscar party in 2006. Widowed at only 58, Kathy Paulsen downsized from a house to a condo back in Rochester, New York. After the move, Crapps says, her mother drove to Michigan for a visit, "and I still remember watching her get out of the car holding my prom dresses, thinking, 'What am I going to do with that junk?'" There were three of them: light blue from her sophomore year, followed by teal with a big hoop skirt and pink with puff shoulders. They hung ignored, except when her daughter played dress-up with the hoop skirt. Then Kirste Moline from the mom's group at St. Thomas a'Becket invited some friends over to watch the Academy Awards. Crapps recruited her neighbor, Jen Edmunds, and at a gathering where most people were relaxing in jeans or sweatpants, they sauntered in like the belles of a 1980s ball. She wore the teal number, Edmunds a red bridesmaid dress with disco ball earrings. "Where's the red carpet?" Crapps asked. The moms dissolved. A few months later, a swarm of them descended on the Italian restaurant, and Crapps was on her way to moderate fame and no fortune. Associated Press covered the 2011 Mom Prom, and the story popped up on at least four continents. Crapps is blessedly comfortable on camera, but when "Good Morning America" put her on the air that year ... Well. That was daunting. Then she glanced at the daily Bible verse an app delivers to her cell phone, and it was Matthew 5:15-16: Do not put your light under a bushel, "but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house." Light, and in her case laughter, plus cash. The only year Crapps tried to keep track of all the money raised was 2013. There were maybe 60 events nationwide, half the number for 2019, and when you're dealing with three kids in travel soccer you don't have time to pester all the proms for final numbers. The incomplete total topped $200,000, an average of at least $3,333 apiece. Consider the increase in Mom Proms, adjust for the growth in revenue that comes with experience, remember to count the proms from 2007-12, and the $3 million aggregate becomes entirely plausible. "We're so proud of Betsy," says Moline, the party host. "She's done something really, really special." The rescuer of the gown At this point, Mom Prom is old enough to have traditions, and one of them for Crapps is that she always wears the pink dress to her own dance. For the record, that's the favorite of her dry cleaner. Ann Marie Rockov and husband Mark own Park Avenue Cleaners, close enough to St. Thomas a'Becket that you could hit it with a corsage. It's become the unofficial Mom Prom rescuer of beaded, befouled or just plain elderly gowns. "Women come in, all excited, and act like it's their first prom," Rockov says — even if they're presenting a stain that's the residue of last year's exuberance. She understands. She's been to multiple Mom Proms, and "you can take your shoes off and dance. Just let loose." Crapps' shoes stay on, but that's only because she wears purple low-top Converse sneakers. Many others begin the evening in heels, but few end it that way. Some proms even sell flip-flops as a fundraiser or get them sponsored. Crapps offers that sort of insight to anyone who asks, and the questions come with regularity. Often, that means eating lunch at her desk while she deals with Mom Prom emails. Be forewarned, she'll say: If a group of you go to dinner before the dance, complete strangers will take your picture. What they do with the photos remains a mystery, but it's all part of the adventure that comes with the clothes. "It's kind of weird to say I wear prom dresses," Crapps concedes. But it's kind of cool that they still fit, and even more cool that she's made thousands of other people want to wear them, too. Thank goodness the spirit moved her — whether it was truly the Holy Spirit ... or just the spirit of Duran Duran. nrubin@detroitnews.com Twitter: @nealrubin_dn Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/neal-rubin/2019/04/26/mom-proms-fundraisers-charity/3500460002/  |
| Teen's Grandfather Dresses Up to Take Prom Photos With Her - Inside Edition Posted: 26 Apr 2019 11:47 AM PDT  When a California teen didn't have a date for prom, her grandfather stepped in. Kaylah Bell, 17, of Lancaster, said she didn't land a date in time for the big dance, so she asked her grandfather, Alvin Bell, to take pictures with her. She didn't expect him to show up in a matching suit. "My friends thought it was so adorable because they know how much I love my grandfather and how close we are, so that was nice," Kaylah told InsideEdition.com. Her grandfather, whom Kaylah Lovingly calls "Papa," showed up in a blue pinstripe suit that matched the cape to her prom dress. He also brought her a corsage for the special occasion. Kaylah said it was a special night for her grandfather as well, because he'd never been to prom himself. "It was a cool thing to share with each other," Kaylah said. While Alvin couldn't attend the prom because the cut off is age 21, Kaylah said she'll cherish the photos forever. Kaylah hopes the photos inspire others to cherish their time with their grandparents. "[It] was just a true blessing and it was a very amazing experience because I'll always remember this and this will be something that, you know, I can tell my grandchildren," Kaylah added. RELATED STORIES Britney Spears Promises She's OK in New Post After Claims She Was Forced Into Mental Health Facility Man Allegedly Scammed Victims, Including Mom, Out of $750K After Promising Super Bowl Tix Trial Starts for Man Accused of Killing Roommate's Prom Date, Dumping Body  |
| Does This Dress Make Me Look Guilty? - The New York Times Posted: 25 Apr 2019 05:25 PM PDT  Anna Sorokin, the fake heiress accused of being a society scammer, wore a little black dress to State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday evening as she was found guilty of second-degree grand larceny, theft of services, and one count of attempted grand larceny. Did she have an inkling of what was going to happen? Perhaps. After all, the black dress appeared after Ms. Sorokin made back-to-back trial appearances in virginal white: a white long-sleeve V-neck mini with a sweet sheer overlay, a short white lace frock with a youthful drop waist. Those dresses, more fit for communion than the courtroom, followed weeks of carefully crafted, mostly black, white and beige outfits — sweaters and trousers, yes, but mostly short baby-doll dresses with ruffles and ties — that had been chosen for Ms. Sorokin by a professional stylist and borrowed on her behalf via a secret benefactor, according to her lawyer Todd Spodek. Her legal team was concerned that an appearance in Rikers Island prison garb would make her look guilty and prejudice the jury against her. Image  There was a lot of hue and cry about the idea of using a formal stylist for a criminal proceeding. But the truth is that dress and public image are impossible to separate, especially when motivations are in question. It's one way we pass judgment, and not just when it comes to women: Earlier this year, after the political operative and self-described dirty trickster Roger Stone was indicted on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements, he made a video that was posted on the YouTube channel of the conservative website The Daily Caller talking about the importance of thinking long and hard about "what you wear to your arraignment." (In his case, he said, he didn't want to look too rich, so he went for a classic navy suit.) Indeed, in the pageantry of court, clothes matter, as a fashion show of sorts that occurred this week in a variety of cases across the country demonstrated. Ms. Sorokin was just one model of how to approach the issue. Her appearance in the halls of justice came just days after that of Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the blood-testing company Theranos, who is charged with multiple counts of wire fraud. Ms. Holmes, best known for the Steve Jobsian black turtleneck and trousers she monotonously wore during the years she played the role of visionary founder, made her entrance in a San Jose, Calif., courtroom wearing the light gray pantsuit and light blue button-down shirt of a white-collar penitent. She had changed! Literally. Gone from the dark side toward the light. And a few days earlier, the rapper Cardi B appeared in a Queens courtroom to reject a plea deal in a misdemeanor assault case (she is accused of involvement in a brawl) in a state of high polish, wearing a white Christian Siriano sleeveless turtleneck dress over wide white trousers, carrying a taupe Hermès Birkin bag, with her hair smoothed back perfectly into a low ponytail, not a strand out of place. It was about as far from her recent Coachella look — fringed hot pants and a floral leather corset — as you could get. In each case the defendants had undergone something of a makeover for the courtroom, one that tapped into different archetypes of femininity that in turn function as vessels of association: part of a shared social mythology about innocence, youth, purity, hard work, good manners, respect for the court and the seriousness of the situation. As far as the latter goes, see Ms. Sorokin's nerdy thick-rimmed glasses, which have been a constant in every look. Also the horn-rimmed glasses worn by Lori Loughlin, another case in point (no pun intended), during her appearance in a Boston court earlier this month. Along with the glasses, the actress embroiled in the college admissions scandal also sported an equally studious tan trouser suit with a gray T-shirt. As far as accessories go, there's an implicit connection between hard work and horn rims. Not to mention neutral shades and — well, remaining neutral. Just because it's obvious doesn't make it less effective. The point is to counteract with visual imagery whatever picture the other side is painting of a person: How could someone who looks like this act like that? This strategy can backfire, of course. According to the New York Post, Ms. Sorokin became upset with her court outfit one day and refused to appear, much to the irritation of the judge in her case, who said, "This is a trial. She is a defendant in a criminal case. I am sorry if her clothing is not up to her standards, but she's got to be here," and ordered her to show up. Indeed, there's something fascinating about the calculus, which is in part why, in each case, the makeovers were so closely tracked on social media. Ms. Sorokin had an entire Instagram account (@Annadelveycourtlooks) devoted to her style, with over 3,800 followers. Cardi B shared her own look on Instagram with the caption "COURT FLOW," garnering more than three million likes. That's a new development, and one that is likely to spread as social media allows a public ruling on every photo op, and reality TV casts every drama as something to watch. But the obsessive attention to celebrity defendants, and the ways in which their clothes may affect the scales of justice, has long been a factor in forming opinions. In 2002, for example, Winona Ryder attended her shoplifting trial in Los Angeles in what The New York Times called "conservative but very chic outfits," including a Marc Jacobs black dress with a trompe l'oeil Peter Pan collar that evoked a child's school uniform. In 2004, Martha Stewart came to court in Manhattan for her trial on insider trading charges toting a Birkin bag, which did not go over well. While for Cardi B, the choice may have suggested the social niceties associated with the French brand, for Ms. Stewart it served to emphasize her (allegedly ill-gotten) wealth. And in 2011, during her trial for felony grand theft in Los Angeles, Lindsay Lohan garnered more attention for what she wore on her way to court — very short, clingy dresses, often in white or beige — than for the reasons she was in court, which may not have helped with her legal troubles, but made a different kind of case for her own fame in the public eye. "She walks into court like a movie star," the lawyer Gloria Allred told The Times during the trial. "Apparently she hopes to be one." Ms. Allred also said then that her own general approach was to advise clients to dress for court as though they were dressing for church. It's a precedent, of a sort. Jonah Engel Bromwich contributed reporting.  |
| Posted: 26 Apr 2019 03:49 PM PDT [unable to retrieve full-text content]SEE IT: Emilia Clarke dresses as 'Game of Thrones' co-star Kit Harington and chats with unsuspecting New Yorke New York Daily News Emilia Clarke suited up as her "Game of Thrones" co-star Kit Harington's character, Jon Snow, and spoke to unsuspecting pedestrians in New York City for a ...  |
| Dubuque Senior student council giving away Prom dresses ahead of dance - KCRG Posted: 25 Apr 2019 07:57 AM PDT  DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) -- The Dubuque Senior High School student council is giving away Prom dresses ahead of the big dance this weekend. Senior Lilly Smith and junior Kathryn Lincicum organized the Prom dress drive called Say Yes to the Dress. They asked for dresses from the community and have them available to students in need at the school. Smith said only a handful of students have taken dresses, but they still consider it a success. "We figure even though it's affecting small numbers, it's impacting them in big ways," Smith said. Lincicum said they organize this drive to ensure all students have a chance to go to the dance. "Our Ram Core Values, one of them is inclusiveness. So it kind of brings all our students in together and promotes a culture of unity," she said. "To make everyone comfortable, like at the dances and stuff so that they want to go and have fun and be with their friends, it provides them like an opportunity that maybe they don't have." The student council stores the remaining donated dresses at the school. Students in need of dresses can reach out to the student council year-round.  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "dresses" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
![Ziqo - Kuya Kaya [Baixar Download] Mp3 2019](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhetc9pUOInydNJylYWNRV7jZqJQPxwLI_NN90ipAREAin9z3MCpiz6CzGiNS9S8lafGNx9Y4riK5kSbnnLKQS0uN4sbLrKSyDDuI-MOWqFaOXz0GLXR6GWqHxOMaPbt31wN8Ih1rAJw/w100/Ziqo-Kuya-Kaya-e1574634115477.jpg)
0 Yorumlar