Nursing students organize prom dress donations

Jun 8, 2009

For the second year, University of Kansas School of Nursing students organized a prom dress donation program for Kansas City high school students, as part of the School's Service Learning Project.

This year's donation of more than 150 prom dresses and formal attire went to the local non-profit Young Women on the Move. The organization distributed dresses to Wyandotte High School, F.L. Schlagle, Washington High Schooland Sumner Academy.

Nine undergraduate nursing students coordinated the efforts and delivered the items on May 1. Julie Randolph, 2009 Bachelor of Science in Nursing graduate, led the delivery efforts under the mentorship of Ginger Breedlove, CNM, PhD, FACNM, assistant professor.

Pictured from left: Ginger Breedlove, CNM, PhD, FACNM; Patty McKenna; Allison Wilcox; Whitney Fasbender; and Julie Randolph.

“These students exemplified compassion and emerging professionalism far beyond what is learned in the classroom,” Breedlove said. “I know that the spirit of giving, compassion for community and zest to integrate classroom knowledge with ‘real world' health delivery is vital to rounding out pre-licensure education; and these students ‘got it.' It takes a village to educate health professions students, but I truly believe it takes immersion into the village to see why what we do is so needed in our own neighborhood,” Breedlove said.

Young Women on the Move is the Kansas Unified School District 500's endorsed girls' mentoring and empowerment program, according to Cherie Simmons, program director.

“We focus on empowering young women to live healthy lives filled with positive options.Our emphasis on positive mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health falls right in line with the quest of the nursing students who donated these dresses,” Simmons said.

“Watching the girls try on the dresses was a wonderful experience.The girls told us that without these dresses, they would not have gone to prom.The nursing students should feel very good about helping these young women not only to attend prom, but to have that moment when they feel beautiful and part of the celebration,” Simmons said.

“We had so much fun,” Randolph said. “It was definitely worth our time and effort to know that the girls who got the dresses were going to be thrilled. I hope to be involved in projects like this in the future so I can continue to impact the lives of the youth in my community.”