As the end of the school year approaches, so does prom season. The urge to show out, whether with sparkling sequins or a flowy fringe, becomes an essential event in many high schoolers’ lives.

One of the highlights of prom is ‘walking the runway’ at the venue and showing off your dress. 

Unfortunately, finding a dress can be challenging. Since not everyone can afford or find the time to go and purchase a dress, Jupiter High School has made it accessible and easy to find the perfect gown.

“The dresses can be for students who might have a financial need with so many things having become so expensive,” Amy Hand, guidance counselor and coordinator of the boutique, said. “By the time the student pays for a prom ticket and wants to buy a formal gown, the cost just builds up.”

The boutique’s main premise is to be a convenience to students at JHS who are still on the hunt for a dress, in which it is open to students in the guidance office during school hours and during lunches A and B.

“We have both homecoming and prom dresses that are either new or gently used,” Hand said. “Plenty of girls have taken a dress. If you haven’t found a dress and need one, you should come and look!”

The dresses at the boutique are entirely free of charge. All dresses were donated by outside sources including from a local boutique called Crowning Closet.

JHS’s boutique receives as many as 50 donations each year. The boutique offers many styles that vary from long to short and sparkly to matte, so finding a dress that fits your personal style is easily done.

“I was surprised by the array of dresses; a lot of them were really cute and not what I was expecting,” Lilly Day, sophomore who modeled the dresses for the school news, said.

In order to promote the boutique, flyers and social media announcements are posted to inform students of the opportunity and encourage people with new or gently used dresses to donate.

“We put some postings on social media just to get information out to the students. And now every year parents and strangers will bring a dress or two and drop them off in the main office,” Hand said.

The boutique has been JHS’s way of contributing to a good cause in the local community.

”I hope that the students are thrilled and overjoyed when they see the boutique, because I think the dresses are really so beautiful,” Hand said.