Freebie Dresses With Formal Appeal

Dancing outside Brentwood Presbyterian Church to the hip-hop ring tone on her cellphone, Sharday McCoy, 17, waited Saturday for her number to be called so she could begin that rite of spring: the hunt for a prom dress.

“I’ll know it when I see it,” said the Inglewood High School senior, who has been in foster care since she was 5.

The only thing she knew for certain about the dress was that it would be free.

In Los Angeles, A-list actresses are usually the ones getting free evening gowns (even though they could afford to buy them). On Saturday, teenage girls in foster care in L.A. County got their turn to shop at no cost.

For the fourth year, the Glamour Gowns Project offered them a chance at donated new and “gently used” dresses and accessories.

With hundreds of dresses assembled on racks by size, the church’s expansive Fellowship Hall took on the look of a Barneys warehouse sale. By midmorning, a little more than 100 teenagers had shown up at the church, double the expected turnout.

The young women scrutinized frocks as volunteers in slacks and jeans scurried through the hall, identifiable by the walkie-talkies in their hands and the plastic tiaras perched on their heads. Members of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at USC and Occidental College roamed the room playing the roles of fashion advisors.

Friends of Child Advocates sponsored the event. That group is the fundraising arm of Court Appointed Special Advocates, an organization of trained volunteers assigned by judges to help children who end up in the court system through abuse or neglect. Numerous volunteers from the Friends, the Special Advocates, Brentwood Presbyterian and the sorority were on hand Saturday.

Natasha Wright, 16, glided by in a backless column of blue adorned with sequins.

“You have the figure for that dress!” exclaimed Jan Miller, a volunteer with the Special Advocates group and a member of the church.

Natasha, a freshman at Little Rock High School in Palmdale, had fretted over whether she would find anything in size 2. “Everything was too big,” she said.

Natasha has lived with her grandmother since she was born. “I couldn’t live with my mother,” she said.

The teenager changed back into her jeans, and Noelle Sprunger, a USC sophomore and sorority member, held the blue dress aloft on a hanger.

“Now we get to accessorize,” Sprunger said. “The hard part is over.”

But it was just beginning for Sharday. She picked up a gray bias-cut dress.

“Are you looking for short or long?” asked Erin Woods, a volunteer from USC, holding up a red and black lace mini-dress.

“Oh, that’s too short,” Sharday said.

Woods worked purposefully, pulling an armful of dresses. She held up a shimmery strapless.

“Oh, no, that’s not for me,” Sharday said with a chuckle. “I have no chest.”

She slipped into a makeshift dressing room as Woods, a 21-year-old junior and the philanthropy chairwoman of the Kappa Alpha Theta chapter at USC, waited outside.

Woods said she and her sorority sisters donated dozens of dresses accumulated from their various social events. Court Appointed Special Advocates is the charity of the entire national sorority.

“This is the only real opportunity to interact with the girls from the organization we support,” said Woods, in a sweatshirt and tiara.

Sharday was unmoved by the gray dress. Back in her jeans, she headed out to resume her search. “I was hoping someone would put back the dresses they didn’t want, and I would find one,” she said, worry creeping into her voice.

“Is this one too clingy?” volunteer Woods asked as she pulled out a silvery slip dress.

“No, that’s good,” Sharday said.

Woods grabbed a pastel strapless and added that to the teenager’s armful. Sharday changed and came out for a look at herself in the silver dress.

“No,” she said, a sheepish grin on her face as she hurried back into the dressing room.

Finally, she reemerged in the pale butter-colored strapless dress, detailed with delicate silvery beading on the bodice and a voile overskirt. Perfection -- as if it had been designed just for her.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, covering her mouth as if to suppress the wide grin of delight. Volunteers and adults accompanying some of the girls gathered around.

“You got it,” said one woman approvingly.

Back in her jeans, Sharday stepped out into the sunshine holding her new acquisition. “I’m so happy,” she said with the giddiness and relief that mark the triumphant shopper. All she had to do now was get a date. “I have a couple of options,” she said.

A similar dress giveaway for foster girls will be held Saturday at Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Court in Monterey Park.

“We can always use more dresses,” said Michele Hilland, assistant director of Friends of Child Advocates, who added that anyone seeking to donate had to take the dresses to the courthouse. For more information, call (323) 526-6329.