Thirteen-year-old Kamila Gomez was so happy with the dark green, satin gown she chose on Saturday that she kept it on and left in the dress, matching tiara, jewel-encrusted clutch and high heels she’d chosen.
“I love the way that I look,” Gomez told The Post as she walked out of the church beaming.
Best of all, it was free — thanks to Winnie’s Closet.
For the 10th year in a row, the free prom dress drive popped up in Brooklyn to offer girls a selection of formal dresses and accessories — items that typically cost hundreds of dollars.
“Prom is a special day, and they are making it extra special. So I’m really happy,” Giselle Acevedo told The Post after her daughter picked out her look, sparkly accessories and all from a room in the back of Mount Sion Baptist Church, where many of the volunteers come from.
“I feel great because sometimes you don’t have the money to go out and buy all these things together. So, you know, it helps. Resources like this are really helpful for the family.”
She heard about the free prom dress and accessory drive through her daughter’s school in Highland Park and brought her to Crown Heights in hopes of finding the perfect dress.
Which they did.
Gomez tried on several styles but quickly fell in love with the long gown she pulled. When she exited the fitting tent to show her mom, the room erupted into hoots and hollers as the volunteers fawned over the teen.
“There’s so many people giving me so many compliments. I just can’t handle it,” she said, smiling.
She was just one of nearly 100 girls to leave Mount Sion Baptist Church with a free dress and accessories ready for prom.
Seventeen-year-old Danielle Carlor was a little nervous that she wouldn’t find anything that matched her style, so she really appreciated having like-minded women and girls around to help her.
She said it “felt comforting to know other people are in the same boat. Knowing we’re all here looking for a dress that we need.”
Now that she’s chosen her dress — a light-green velvet number — she feels “relieved and less anxious” about the end of the school year, now that she at least knows she’s wearing a beautiful dress to prom.
An “excited” but “a little overwhelmed” Ivie Myers, who came from Ocean Hill with her grandma, also walked away with a free prom dress.
“It was really cool that they were doing a whole prom dress giveaway,” the 17-year-old told The Post.
“I was, like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s a lot of dresses.’ Like, it’s a lot. I was, like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to pick.’ You only get one dress, so that’s, like, wow, that’s nerve-wracking.”
That’s why she was especially thankful for the “extremely helpful” volunteers who zipped her into her green, sparkly dress.
“Everybody was really nice. I had somebody come to me right away and ask me what I was looking for. She even helped me put my dress on. Everybody was really sweet,” the teen said.
Winnie’s Closet has been helping girls find their dream dress for free since 2015. Sabrina Wallington-Taylor first started the endeavor by buying dresses for some of the girls at her daughter’s school after her daughter, Whynter — “Winnie” — learned that several of her peers couldn’t afford prom dresses.
Each year, the event got bigger as word spread. As more girls began attending, more volunteers signed up to help, and more dresses were collected from the community.
They’ve even partnered with local wedding shops and other stores to get donations. Wallington-Taylor and her crew also host several pop-up boutiques throughout the year to raise funds for the event.
Girls have come from as far as Pennsylvania to comb through the racks and tables of shoes and purses.
Over the last decade, Wallington-Taylor has turned Winnie’s Closet into a pillar of the community and hopes to keep it that way. Donations and sponsorships have slowly begun to dwindle, but the ladies — and a few men — running the event won’t let the girls down, even if it means donating their own items or money to the drive.
And it’s not just the girls who have a great time. The volunteers thoroughly enjoy the experience as well.
“I’m just humbled by the whole experience,” Wallington-Taylor told The Post.
Mary McNeil, the designated photographer who tries to get a snap of every girl in her gown in front of a balloon-wall backdrop, flies in from South Carolina just to help out.
She used to live in the area and first began assisting the “amazing” pop-up boutique five years ago. When she moved to the South, she decided she didn’t want to give it up and now books a plane ticket to come back every spring.
“A lot of children’s parents are unable to get them beautiful gowns, and some of these are name-brand things that I can’t afford,” McNeil told The Post.
She especially likes “seeing their faces light up” when they find their favorite dress.
Shelesea Sheard, who collaborated with Winnie’s Closet to offer accessories and makeup, cherishes helping the girls pick out the accessories and makeup as the final touches.
“I love to make the other girls feel good about themselves,” she told The Post. “Boosting confidence, self-esteem, just everything — because I did it for myself. So I know pushing other girls to do it, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Email winniescloset2015@gmail.com to get involved.
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