Thirty miles outside of Gainesville, in the back right corner of Storage Unit 91, lay every high school girl's dream.
Five clothing racks bursting with colorful dresses wait for their second debut. In three months, a girl with the hope of attending prom could don one of the glittering gowns for free.
Ashley Wheeler, a UF business management junior, operates Dresses for Dreams, a program that travels to community high schools to redistribute used prom dresses to underprivileged high school girls.
This year, Wheeler is expanding her efforts by collecting dresses at UF. She hopes to secure a drop spot in the Reitz Union by next week and solicit Sorority Row soon after.
"The more dresses I get, the more the community comes together, the more we can reach out," she said.
She said she began the program about four years ago when she noticed that the Gainesville consignment shop where she worked was marking down ,400 prom dresses to ,2 or ,3.
She thought back to her high school, which she said was a "pretty poor" school, and how unfortunate it would be for a girl to miss prom because she couldn't afford a dress.
The first year, she took dresses from the consignment shop to her high school and invited a small group of girls to browse for free.
She said she remembers the appreciation of one girl in particular, who gave Wheeler a hug after picking out her dress.
"It's kind of like she was a little Cinderella for the night," Wheeler said. "That one girl made all the effort that I put into the drive that year worth it."
In the first year of the program, about 12 girls received new dresses. In the past four years, she estimated that number has grown to almost 400.
She said she collects dresses all year from the consignment shop where she works and from dress collections around the area.
She begins visiting schools in late February until about three weeks before prom, when it becomes clear which girls need the help.
In many cases, Wheeler said the girls' parents are just as appreciative. Without the service, parents might have to sacrifice some other expense, such as a month's electric bill, to afford dresses for their daughters, she said.
At some schools, students earn an invitation to the event depending on their financial needs. At others, anyone is welcome.
Wheeler said she tries to make the day feel like a party.
"I want them to be comfortable," she said. "So they don't feel like they're taking a handout."
After the girls try on as many as dresses as they want and find the perfect one, they're free to take it home, which sometimes surprises them.
"I think they think they have some obligation, but they don't," said Kasey Meek, Ashley's sister who has helped with Dresses for Dreams the past few years.
Meek, a SFCC freshman, said helping with the project makes her feel like she's really making a difference.
She started helping her sister two years ago as a high school junior.
At first she said she was uncomfortable seeing which of her classmates needed the extra help, but after a while, she was just glad they were able to get that same, quintessential high school experience she looked forward to.
"You remember your own prom as long as you're alive," Meek said. "My aunt's like 50, and she still tells me about her prom."
