Cinderella’s Wardrobe a fairy godmother for graduates

For more than 10 years, Cinderella’s Wardrobe in Steinbach has been providing free attire for teens who are looking for an affordable way to dress themselves for graduation day.

The program started when three Steinbach Regional Secondary School students came to their guidance counsellor and said they weren’t going to their graduation because they couldn’t afford it. The guidance counsellor and some teachers took it upon themselves to get dresses for the students.

“That’s how it started. Three students came forward and it’s been going ever since,” said Ashley Booth Gingras, a teacher at SRSS who has been involved with Cinderella’s Wardrobe for a number of years.

The closet currently has 500 dresses as well as two racks of suits. The program usually sees between 30 and 45 students come to get clothed.

“Some students will have two outfits. They’ll have a less fancy outfit for grad farewell and the fancy gown and suit for graduation day,” said Booth Gingras.

The suit side of Cinderella’s Wardrobe not only has suits but shirts, ties, and sometimes shoes. “We’ve been pretty successful in helping the gentlemen find something. We’ve even had a couple of females too where that’s their style and they want a suit, and we can help with that,” said Booth Gingras.

Also needed for the closet are plus size gowns. Booth Gingas said they gave away all the plus size gowns to students and need more to replenish their stock.

Booth Gingras said the students feel empowered when they put on their outfits and about 99 percent of students who come looking for grad attire walk away with a dress or suit.

“And they’re usually happy with their choices…They’re happy with what they found and we do have a pretty good selection. And some students are just more environmentally concerned, so instead of buying a lot of new stuff they decided to go thrifting. So that might be one of the reasons some students decided to go to donated dresses as opposed to buying something new,” said Katrina Drinevski, who has been helping Booth Gingras for the last few years with Cinderella’s Wardrobe.

Booth Gingras wants people to know that Cinderella’s Wardrobe is not just for SRSS students but students all over Hanover School Division.

“A couple of weeks ago we had the Grade 8 orientation and open house in the evening…there were some parents that had never heard of (Cinderella’s Wardrobe) and I got to educate them on it. There was one lady who came and her son goes to Niverville Collegiate and her daughter is going to come here for vocational studies and she was like, ‘Oh my son is graduating this year, can he use this program? He’s not from the SRSS.’ Yes! It’s for all HSD graduates. So getting the word out about that is great. She said through our brief little chat that he loves to go thrifting and he would prefer to find something that has been used by someone else, so I thought that was neat too.”

At Cinderella’s Wardrobe there is no application to fill out and no restrictions on who can get a dress.

Between March 25 and 27 Cinderella’s Wardrobe will be open from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. for students to come and pick out their clothes in the drama room.

For those who would like to donate their gently used grad attire or suits they may do so at the SRSS offices during regular school hours.